Appealing to moral duty of religious orders will not work – State must have power to compel payment
Appealing to moral duty of religious orders will not work - State must have power to compel payment - The Labour Party
Labour leader Ivana Bacik has urged Government to progress Labour’s Civil Liability (Child Sexual Abuse Proceedings Unincorporated Bodies of Persons) Bill 2024 which would enable the state to compel religious orders to pay redress to survivors of mother and baby homes.
Deputy Bacik said:
“I note Minister Norma Foley’s calls on religious orders to come forward with offers of redress. Unfortunately, the bitter experience of so many survivors shows that any appeals to the religious orders based on their moral duty will be ineffective.
“The State needs to have more robust powers to compel these orders to provide survivors with the justice they deserve.
“Labour published a Bill last September which would provide a remedy for Government to address the legal obstruction tactics so routinely deployed by religious orders and their associated lay-run trusts to avoid having to pay redress to those who have endured abuse in institutions controlled by such orders.
“It would go a step further to address the imbalance of power that exists by facilitating civil proceedings against unincorporated bodies, such as religious orders, and by providing a mechanism for recovering damages from the ‘associated’ lay-run trusts set up by these bodies, to which their assets have typically been transferred.
“Accountability must be demanded of those institutions that presided over this shameful period of recent Irish history. If the tragic history of Mother and Baby homes has taught us anything, it’s that accountability must be provided in real time, and not generations later.
“We can’t let this drag on any longer. The Minister must compel these orders to take responsibility for their actions.”