Media should not be allowed to put its own agenda before fair play

AN interesting point arose in a recent MRBI survey on people’s attitudes to the compensation deal struck between the State and religious orders, under which the orders agreed to contribute €128 million in property and cash to compensate victims of institutional child abuse.

The overall result was that 55% of those surveyed opposed the deal and only 33% favoured it. But the breakdown of the figures showed that among young people, strangely, there was more support. Whereas 60% of 35-49 year olds disapproved of the deal (as against 28% in favour) there was a slim majority (42%-40%) in favour among the 18-24 cohort.

It is not clear why opinion varied so much among the age groups, but a number of possible conclusions could be drawn. The first is down to pure economics. Among 35-49 year-olds you are likely to find more taxpayers than among 18-24 year-olds. And taxpayers don’t like anything that takes money out of their pockets. A second, more profound reason for the survey findings may be that anger with the Church, and therefore anger over anything that could be construed as a ‘sweetheart deal’ for the religious orders, is more likely among those who came to maturity in the 1960s and ’70s than among older or younger age groups.