The Government and the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) have signed an agreement under which 18 religious congregations will contribute €128 million to the State Redress Scheme for people abused in religious-run institutions.
In return, the State will indemnify the congregations, but only for cases covered by the Residential Institutions Redress Act, 2002, that are the subject of court awards.
Welcoming the agreement, the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, said it was the result of a long and painstaking period of negotiation. Sister Elizabeth Maxwell, secretary general of CORI, said the agreement "does not take away anybody's right to take legal action".
Dr Woods also announced that he had appointed Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Murphy to chair the Residential Institutions Redress Review Committee. It is the body to which a claimant can appeal if dissatisfied with an award of the redress board. The Minister recently appointed Judge Kieran O'Connor, a retired Circuit Court judge, to chair the board.
The 18 religious congregations party to the agreement, all of whom were involved with institutions, are: the Sisters of Mercy; the Daughters of Charity; the Christian Brothers; the Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd Order; the Presentation Brothers; the Rosminians; the Oblates of Mary Immaculate; the Order of St John of God; the Sisters of Charity; the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge; the Sisters of St Clare; the St Louis Sisters; the Presentation Sisters; the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools; the Dominicans; the Daughters of the Heart of Mary; the Brothers of Charity; and the Nazareth Sisters.