Woods defends Church deal role

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.

Mr Woods, who is back in the limelight again after joining the exodus of senior Fianna Fáilers who will not contest the looming general election, insisted he did the right thing.

He defended his central role in the controversial 2002 deal which capped Catholic Church payments at €127 million — barely a tenth of the €1.3 billion liability.

Mr Woods, who is quitting the Dáil after 33 years, claimed the agreement was “the best deal that could have been done at the time”.

“The Government wanted to put the situation right. Those people had been abused by the state under state control. Some of these institutions were fully run by the state,” he told RTÉ.

Mr Woods said that subsequent examinations of the deal showed “clearly it was the right thing”.

The deal with 18 religious orders has been heavily criticised by victims’ groups and by opposition politicians for putting such a huge financial burden on the taxpayer to cover compensation for the crimes of clerics.

Labour education spokesman Ruairi Quinn remarked last month: “More than €26m is still outstanding from the original indemnity deal, negotiated by the then minister for education, Michael Woods, in 2002, when the congregations pledged to hand over €128m in cash and property. Furthermore, of the €348m pledged in 2009, following the shocking disclosures in the Ryan Report, just €20m, or 6%, has been handed over.”

The 75-year-old Dublin North-East TD is among a number of major Fianna Fáil figures to announce they are standing down at the next election.

Mr Woods is set for an annual pension of some €105,000, plus a non-taxable lump-sum of about €155,000.