A Catholic religious community has repaid its debt, after ten years, to an agency that provides financial support to abuse survivors.
The Congregation of Christian Brothers, a Catholic community who do evangelism and youth work, owed €6.8m to agency Caranua because of a pledge they made to the organisation.
The Irish Department of Education and Skills said on Monday that it had been paid, completed through a series of monthly cash transfers between September and December this year.
The completion of the payments follows a warning last July from the agency tasked with providing financial support to abuse survivors, Caranua, that it did not have enough money to cover the cost of outstanding supports for survivors unless it “urgently” received the last of the funds pledged to it by the Christian Brothers.
The warning was reported in the Irish Examiner newspaper.
Caranua, a state body, was set up to deal with a €110m scheme to help improve housing, health and education for people who suffered abuse as children in residential institutions.
The Irish Minister for Education, Joe McHugh, whose department oversees the survivor fund, said: “I welcome the latest contributions made by the Christian Brothers as it fulfils the congregation’s pledge to complete its voluntary contributions.
“These payments ensure that Caranua has access to the full €110m in cash contributions which were committed to.
“Most importantly, the financial contributions will allow Caranua to continue its supports for survivors.”
The Congregation of Christian Brothers has now voluntarily contributed a total of €30 million toward redress.
A further portion of the contribution made by the Christian Brothers, €428,000, is to be paid to the new National Children’s Hospital.
Under the provisions of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Act 2012, no more than €110m in contributions may go to the Caranua fund.
Any amounts in excess of that figure go to the funding of the development of the National Children’s Hospital.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, the executive director of abuse survivors group One In Four, Maeve Lewis, said there were a lot delays to get to this point and that it is her understanding that there is still money outstanding from other religious congregations so the full amount remains to be paid.
Ms Lewis said the redress support needed for survivors will be well in excess of the religious contributions and added that it was estimated that €1.5bn would be needed.
She said Caranua had run out of money and that it had stopped taking applications in August.
Ms Lewis said it now falls to the Government as to how they are going to support the survivors as they move into old age.
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