'No legal way' to review abuse deal with Church - The Irish Times - Thu, May 21, 2009
There is "no legal way" that 2002 deal granting religious congregations indemnity against child-abuse claims can be renegotiated, Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe said this evening. Opposition parties today called for a review of the deal following the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse which was published yesterday. The report found endemic abuse in State institutions with children living in "daily terror" of physical violence. The Cabinet will discuss the commission's recommendations next week, and the report is to be debated in the Dáil. Under the 2002 indemnity agreement between the State and the congregations, the religious orders were awarded indemnity against all future claims if they paid €128 million in cash and property.
There is "no legal way" that 2002 deal granting religious congregations indemnity against child-abuse claims can be renegotiated, Minister for Education Batt O'Keeffe said this evening.
Opposition parties today called for a review of the deal following the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse which was published yesterday. The report found endemic abuse in State institutions with children living in "daily terror" of physical violence.
The Cabinet will discuss the commission's recommendations next week, and the report is to be debated in the Dáil.
Under the 2002 indemnity agreement between the State and the congregations, the religious orders were awarded indemnity against all future claims if they paid €128 million in cash and property.
Escalating Tensions, Protesters Rile Agudath Israel Over Sex-Abuse Bill | The Forward | 20.5.09
[...] The angry exchange outside the annual dinner May 15 for Agudath Israel, a national ultra-Orthodox umbrella group, encapsulates the escalating battle within the Orthodox community over sexual abuse of children by rabbis, yeshiva teachers and other religious authority figures. On one side, a band of loosely organized victims of sexual abuse and their supporters are crying out for community leaders to take a tougher stand against pedophilia. On the other side, many powerful leaders regard any public airing of sexual abuse allegations in the Orthodox community as hillul Hashem, a desecration of God's name. [...] The protesters' ire was aimed at Agudah's opposition to a bill now before the state Legislature that would extend the statute of limitations for civil and criminal claims of child sexual abuse and create a one-time, one-year "window" during which victims of crimes committed beyond the statute of limitations could file civil claims against their alleged abusers and the institutions that harbored them. The bill appears stalled in the state Assembly a few weeks before the legislative session adjourns.
The angry exchange outside the annual dinner May 15 for Agudath Israel, a national ultra-Orthodox umbrella group, encapsulates the escalating battle within the Orthodox community over sexual abuse of children by rabbis, yeshiva teachers and other religious authority figures. On one side, a band of loosely organized victims of sexual abuse and their supporters are crying out for community leaders to take a tougher stand against pedophilia. On the other side, many powerful leaders regard any public airing of sexual abuse allegations in the Orthodox community as hillul Hashem, a desecration of God's name.
[...]
The protesters' ire was aimed at Agudah's opposition to a bill now before the state Legislature that would extend the statute of limitations for civil and criminal claims of child sexual abuse and create a one-time, one-year "window" during which victims of crimes committed beyond the statute of limitations could file civil claims against their alleged abusers and the institutions that harbored them.
The bill appears stalled in the state Assembly a few weeks before the legislative session adjourns.
