Abuse compensation - Recognition better late than never

AS WE count the last few days between us and the grim-reaper budget — 14 left; as thousands of families and their homes are devastated by frightening floods; as the divide between public and private sector workers deepens, a good news story has a value well beyond the events it relates.

That is why, despite the decades of evasion, secrecy, persecution and torture, the announcement by the Christian Brothers that they are to surrender €161m in cash or property to compensate those who suffered at the hands of paedophiles and sadists in their residential institutions is welcome.

The money will be significant for the victims who are still alive but the sense that this organisation has recognised that it has a responsibility to try to, no matter how belatedly or imperfectly, to right the terrible wrongs inflicted on children by some of their predecessors will be a positive influence on this process. Without proportionate acknowledgements like this the scandal would have festered for generations.