Dempsey denies religious orders contributing only €28.7m to fund

EDUCATION Minister Noel Dempsey last night denied that the religious orders were contributing less than 30 million in hard cash to the compensation fund for abuse victims.

Yet official documentation from his own department on the residential institutions redress fund shows that the figures are correct.

The fund could cost anything up to 2 billion, yet the religious orders total contribution is just 128m, including 41m in cash. However, 12.7m of this cash has been allocated for counselling services leaving just 28.7m to be put into the kitty for the compensation payments.