“Beyond time” Church pays abuse survivors says Bacik

Labour leader Ivana Bacik has said it is “beyond time” that the Church pays redress to survivors of abuse within or by religious-run institutions, as well as survivors of mother and baby homes.

Last year, Labour launched a bill titled Civil Liability (Child Sexual Abuse Proceedings Unincorporated Bodies of Persons) Bill 2024, legislation which would give the state the power to compel religious orders to set up redress scheme to abuse survivors.

On Thursday, an RTÉ Investigates documentary explored the assets held by the Christian Brothers.

Bacik said “we have a dark and shameful past of institutional abuse in Ireland. For many decades, we have seen religious orders and institutions engaged in the covering up of this tragic history, with resulting injustice to survivors.

“If we’ve learned anything as a nation, it is that accountability must be provided for survivors and victims of abuse.”

The Dublin Bay South TD commended the RTÉ Investigates team for their investigation into how child abusers within the Christian Brothers order enabled a cover-up within the leadership and how they have refused to pay survivors.

“There must be a reckoning for survivors of abuse. The state now must compel the Christian Brothers and other orders to provide survivors with the justice they deserve,” she said.

“Labour published a Bill last September which would provide a remedy for the government in order to address the legal obstruction tactics so routinely deployed by religious orders and their associated lay-run trusts. These tactics are used to avoid having to pay redress to those who have endured abuse in institutions controlled by such orders.”

Bacik said that Labour’s bill would address “the imbalance of power that exists by facilitating civil proceedings against unincorporated bodies, such as religious orders.”

She said that the bill would provide a mechanism for the government to recover damages from the ‘associated’ lay-run trusts set up by these bodies, to which their assets have typically been transferred.

“It’s time for accountability. This Government must now move to compel these orders to take responsibility for their actions.”