Doubts over abuse redress payment

The Department of Education will be grilled by TDs next month on whether it really expects religious orders to pay everything owed under a 2002 deal on the costs of redress for institutional abuse.

At the public accounts committee on Thursday, senior civil servants were quizzed about why money still owed under the indemnity scheme is not included as an asset on the State balance sheet.

Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy said that the outstanding amount is recorded in the Department of Education’s residential institutions redress special account but not in its appropriation accounts.