Ferns paid out €8m to victims of child abuse

CHILD abuse claims have cost the Diocese of Ferns more than €8 million, the bishop of the diocese, Dr Denis Brennan, has confirmed.

Bishop Brennan said the diocese, where 100 cases of child sex abuse involving 21 priests, including the late Fr Sean Fortune, a serial rapist, took place, has agreed 46 settlements totalling €8,120,775.

That is an average of €175,521 per case, with the payments funded from the diocese’s own resources, insurance and the Stewardship Trust, a Church trust fund to cover claims of clerical sex abuse.

Treatment of offenders has cost the diocese €836,000, which Bishop Brennan described as “an investment in child protection in the long term”.

Meanwhile, 180 claims of sexual abuse against government departments cost an average of just over €13,800 each, figures from the State Claims Agency (SCA) revealed.

The SCA, which manages personal injury and property damage claims against state authorities and health institutions, took on sexual abuse claims in 2005.

Since then it has been dealing with 479 claims against the Department of Education, the Department of Health and the Department of Justice.

According to the SCA, 299 claims are currently active and 180 have been resolved. The total paid out in relation to the 180 resolved claims is €2.5m.

Deirdre Kenny, Advocacy Director for One in Four, a charity providing support to people who have experienced sexual abuse, said the figure of €2.5m seemed quite low, considering it was in respect of 180 claims. The problem with sexual abuse claims, she said, is they hinge on emotional damage, which is difficult to put a value on and to prove.

She said often cases were settled out of court as victims did not want the trauma of giving evidence.

“Many law firms steer clear of these cases and a lot of them don’t get to court at all,” she said.

According to the SCA, of the resolved claims, 169 were against the Minister for Education, five against the Minister for Health and two claims were against the Minster for Justice. A further four claims were taken against other state authorities, but they were either outside the SCA remit or discontinued as no proceedings were issued, it said.

In the case of Louise O’Keeffe versus the Minister for Education — in which the Supreme Court upheld a decision that the Department of Education bears no responsibility for abuse she suffered at the hands of her headmaster when she was eight years old because he was not directly employed by the state — 135 similar High Court cases will fail as a consequence.