Sex abuse claims 'will out-strip church's fund'

A fund set up for the Catholic Church to pay out to victims of clerical sex abuse will not be sufficient to meet outstanding claims, it emerged today.

Catholic dioceses expect that claims will be “significantly higher” than the €10.6m in the fund, which is to cover claims of abuse which occurred before 1996.

The fund was set up after the Church disclosed that insurance covering sex abuse did not cover claims before 1996.

“Obviously there will be and there have been heavy demands on that settlement that was made for the pre-1996 situation,” said Father Martin Clarke, spokesman for the Irish Republic’s Conference of Bishops.

“The exposure of dioceses is significantly more than €10.6m and it is now going to be quite a challenge for dioceses and for bishops to find the necessary funds to meet the new claims that are coming in.”

He said the Church had released the information so that the public realised there was no “pot of gold” available for claims prior to 1996.

Although there was still a “substantial amount” left in the fund, Father Clarke said this would not be enough to cover the amount expected to arise from liabilities.

A group representing victims expressed anger at the news, and criticised the church for taking out insurance while claiming it knew nothing about cases of abuse.

“While they weren’t able to protect children they were able to protect their wealth,” said Colm O’Gorman, director of victims’ group One in Four.

In a statement issued last night it was confirmed that most dioceses had insurance in place as far back as 1987 to cover claims.

However “serious legal issues” arose in 1995 between bishops and the insurance company, and in 1996 bishops agreed to put money into a central trust fund to cover legal liabilities arising from abuse claims up to that date.

The fund provides finance to bishops to cover legal liabilities arising from abuse claims, and also funds child protection and other victim response initiatives undertaken at national level by the bishops.