The Devil Of A Deal

As our old friend, the late great Warren Zevon put it in ‘Lawyers, Guns and Money’, the shit has hit the fan. Indeed it has. I’m talking about the deal done with the religious orders by the Government in relation to the abuse of children in residential institutions in Ireland. But there is more here in common with the theme of Zevon’s eloquently embattled saga than merely shit and fans.
There are lawyers involved – but apparently not enough of them. There is money – a whopping 1 billion Euro or so. And guns? Well, apparently one was put to the heads of the individuals who took it upon themselves to negotiate a ‘deal’ on behalf of the people of Ireland – and they caved in. Well, what else would you expect when the gun belonged to the Catholic Church?
I remember shuddering in disbelief when the arrangement was announced by the then Minister for Education, Michael Woods. It had the whiff of a sweetheart deal about it. Now that whiff has been substantiated and we know: the deal stinks.
A total of 18 religious orders were involved in running the various residential institutions throughout the country, in which thousands of children were abused, over a period of decades. For a payment of approximately 126 million from these orders – with the bulk of this payment taking the form of the transfer of properties belonging to them – an indemnity was given by the State, in effect transferring responsibility for the future payment of damages, to those abused, from the orders and onto the State. In other words, the people are being asked to pick up the bill.
And how much will it cost? Well, there is no upper limit to the possible amount, but the current estimate is that it will cost the State – or the taxpayers, rather – 1 fucking billion euro.
The Comptroller and Auditor General is not an office that would often have its praises sung in a rock’n’roll magazine – but here goes anyway. John Purcell, who holds that position at the moment, has done us all a powerful service, drawing attention to the scale of the likely payments and criticising in trenchant terms the conduct of the negotiations, as carried out by the Government. He is the one who has provided the 1 billion estimate. No one with any sense would be inclined to dispute his assessment.

Far from disputing it, the current Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, has attempted to distance himself from the entire fiasco. McDowell was the Attorney General at the time the deal was done. He says that neither he nor his office were included in the talks between the Government and the Religious Orders, effectively until the deal was concluded – when agreeing the legal expression of it became the issue. Instead, as Minister for Education, Michael Woods apparently attended a number of meetings without any legal representation, despite the fact that there were lawyers in attendance for the other side. It is by any standards a bizarre way to conduct such a momentous negotiation. So why was it done in this way?
At one stage, the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, was quoted as saying, about the nature of the deal, that the Government didn’t want to put the religious orders out of business. Now, however, a different complexion is being put on it. We are told that it was the only deal on offer, and that the orders might have wiggled their way out of any payment if Woods had not capitulated.
No one can dispute the fact that the State bears a share of the responsibility for what happened. The children sent to places like Letterfrack and Daingean were in the care of the State. But the abuse was carried out by members of the orders, into whose care the children were transferred, presumably in good faith, by the relevant arms of the State.
To what extent did the Department of Education know what was going on? To what extent did the Department of Health know? In the case of officials of both departments, it is as good as certain that a blind eye at least was turned, and that an element of collusion was involved. But that cannot take the greater burden of responsibility away from those individuals who carried out the abuse. Nor can it mitigate the responsibility of the orders of which those individuals were part, and to whose general care the children were delivered.

It is not as if the Catholic Church cannot afford to pay. The institution in its entirety is currently sitting on property in Ireland, the value of which amounts to many billions, even at a conservative estimate. Much of this property belongs to the religious orders which were implicated in the abuse. In the context, the capping of their exposure at 126 million is indefensible.
Could the Government now walk away from the deal? Maybe. That avenue should be explored. But if that is assessed as being legally problematic, there is another way of skinning the proverbial cat.
The Catholic Church in Ireland enjoys a hugely preferential status in relation to tax. If the orders, or the hierarchy, are not prepared to go 50/50 on the cost of all of the cases relating to abuse in residential institutions – a fair breakdown that the Government could stand over with confidence – then maybe it is time to look at that preferential status again. Because if every land deal that was done by a religious order was subject to Capital Gains tax and every church collection was subject to VAT and income tax and every legacy was hit for a levy– then the 370 million euro or so that is at stake would be recouped, with interest.
It might take a while for sure – but once the shortfall was made up, the State’s coffers would begin to bulge. Indeed, when you look at the colossal apartment blocks that are being built on Church land even as you read this, you have to conclude that that’s the way it should be anyway.
Let’s see if Michael McDowell has the bottle to get that one on the agenda.