Taxpayer carries the can for religious orders
This deal was done without the Government knowing exactly how many children had been abused and the church ended up paying out 5% of what has been paid to date, even though its members committed 95% of the crimes.
The then education minister, Michael Woods, defended the deal he struck with the religious orders (he would, wouldn’t he?). He says “the state did not want to prolong court proceedings involving the victims and was not prepared to bring the victims into court”.