Orders to give €128 to abuse victims

Religious denominations have announced that they will give €128m to the Government’s redress scheme for victims of child abuse in residential institutions.

€38m will go towards an education trust, while €10m will fund counselling and pastoral services for people in need.

Sr Elizabeth Maxwell, a spokesperson for the Conference of Religious in Ireland, said: "Money itself will not cure the pain and money itself will not cure the hurt.

"That is why, in our package, we placed a lot of emphasis on the necessity of providing an educational trust for former residents of the institutions and their families."

The Labour Party has called for a Dail debate on the terms of the settlement.

Party leader Ruairi Quinn, speaking in the Dail this morning, said: "There’s a whole section of our community in pain as a result of the way in which we abdicated our responsibilities by putting those people into those institutions, which were not properly regulated."