The Government says it will continue to assert “moral pressure” on religious orders to provide more money to cover the costs of redress to survivors of residential abuse, with one survivors’ group claiming Pope Francis should become involved.

Five recommendations made by the Ryan Report six years ago to help protect children have yet to be implemented due to lack of resources.

IN Ireland there are particular circumstances feeding the recurring frenzies of first using nuns as guardians of female sexuality, and then turning on them for doing just that.

In a letter by B Cotton (April 24), which addressed the recent article in the Irish Examiner (April 17) about ‘Catholics for Choice‘, your correspondent states that ”as a practicing Catholic... contraception is banned, because sex was made by God to bring children into the world and not for self-gratification”.

Just 12 Christian Brothers have been convicted of child sex abuse despite allegations being made against 325 members of the order, a safeguarding audit has found.

The future of a memorial to victims of institutional child abuse is in jeopardy after planning was refused for the €500,000 project in Dublin’s north inner city.

The Government was told to scrap its pledge on the cost of the child abuse redress scheme before the most powerful religious order in education would discuss school patronage.

THE fight between the Government and 18 religious orders over a €500 million point of principle has been laid bare for the first time.

Questions surround a section of the McAleese Report which states it asked the Ryan Commission to contact seven women mentioned in the Ryan Report who were in Magdalene Laundries.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has shifted his negotiating stance in a bid to squeeze an additional €500m worth of redress contributions from the religious orders.

The Government is making a mockery of post-Ryan Report child protection vows by failing to address serious funding and staffing problems in the foster care services.

THANK you Prime Time, for a powerful and brilliant piece of public service broadcasting.

Education correspondent Niall Murray reports on the plan to move the Children of Lir statue to make way for a memorial to victims of residential child abuse

Denied justice and an apology by the State and Taoiseach Enda Kenny, the women of the Magdalene Laundries deserved a better response, writes Maeve O’Rourke

An appeal to 17 managers of schools and homes where children were abused has failed to illicit a single additional contribution to the €1.47bn redress bill.

The Department of Education will not be able to handle a glut of extra property transfers from religious orders within its current resources.

There has been a 30% increase in the number of children seeking treatment for mental health issues in the last two years, experts said.

THE Sisters of Charity has revealed its desire to sell lucrative tracts of land around Dublin which it no longer needs.

Retired judge Anthony Hart is to chair the North's official inquiry into the abuse of children living in residential care back to 1945.

For decades survivors of horrific abuse at our industrial schools have essentially been demeaned as ingrates, because they did not appreciate what the religious authorities running those schools did for them. All that many were asking for was the right to be heard and listened to when they spoke about their abuse.

ARCHBISHOP Diarmuid Martin has led tributes to a groundbreaking journalist who lifted the lid on clerical and institutional abuse in Ireland.

I REFER to the letter from Mr Tom Hayes published on November 2 regarding the Ryan Report on child abuse, and in particular the following:

WITH referrals to child protection teams expected to top 25,000 by year end, Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald has reiterated her commitment to hire 60 additional social workers in 2011, despite HSE claims to the contrary.

SURVIVORS of the Magdalene Laundries want to ensure their involvement in any future redress scheme will not preclude them from including their life stories in a national museum.

CYNICAL is the only word to describe the Health Service Executive strategy of telling social workers, consultants and other frontline personnel they have been successful at job interviews but then not proceeding to sign their employment contracts.

The abuse of thousands of innocent children in State and church run institutions in Ireland amounted to torture, a scathing report from Amnesty has found.

Professionals working with homeless children are being encouraged to contact the Children's Ombudsman.

Colm O'Gorman of Amnesty International has said the Cloyne Report reveals "the dismissive attitude" of the Vatican to investigations of clerical sexual abuse.

Fairness and equity is the pathway to closure for abuse survivors and orders involved, writes Education Minister Ruairi Quinn

JUST seven of the 200 religious-run schools worth over €1 million each have been offered as part of contributions to the abuse compensation fund, it has emerged.

The controversy over the amount of money the religious orders should pay to indemnify the state for compensation in relation to the abuse highlighted in the Ryan Report has no more to do with the tenets of faith or religion than the actual abuse had anything to do with religion.

THE 46 most valuable education assets held by the religious orders were not offered to the state under a renegotiated redress deal in 2010.

JUST €20.6 million of the €348.5m promised by 16 of the 18 religious congregations in the wake of the Ryan Report has been paid to date.

THE offers by religious congregations to meet their half of a €1.36 billion compensation bill for victims of child sex abuse have so far fallen “well short” of what they are required to pay.

RELIGIOUS orders have been told to either pay another €200 million towards the cost of compensating the victims of child abuse or sign over schools to public ownership.

RELIGIOUS congregations responsible for abusing children in residential homes made €667 million in property deals between 1999 and 2009.

The United Nations watchdog on torture has criticised Ireland’s prison conditions and accused the state of failing to protect women confined to Catholic Church workhouses.

SENATOR David Norris has said the resurfacing of comments attributed to him about incest and the age of consent is an attempt to “sabotage” his presidential bid.

A KEY religious congregation contributing to the special fund for victims of institutional abuse has rejected suggestions that millions of euro in compensation was being withheld.

FORMER education minister Michael Woods has refused to accept any blame for the controversial clerical child abuse compensation scheme he helped broker with the Catholic Church.

NEARLY 18 months after being promised €2 million to provide survivor therapy following the publication of the Ryan Report, counselling services still haven’t received a penny of the ring-fenced funding.