‘Seize Church lands to pay for abuses’, says Government

The Government is on a collision course with the Vatican over the funding of redress payments to sex abuse victims, saying it wants to seize lands owned by the Church.

In some of the strongest terms used against the Church by an Irish government, Taoiseach Enda Kenny warned Church authorities they must “get on with it” in terms of meeting their share of the cost of compensating victims of abuse.

Mr Kenny said the Church must “measure up to the responsibilities that they accepted”.