Benevolent fund

In your letters page, Michael Walsh, of Right of Place, in Cork, talks about the 50/50 contribution from the religious congregations towards the settlement of the redress board.

Mr Walsh says the articles and arguments about the failure of the congregations to “pay up” are demeaning to those of us who were in the institutions.

This sum was not mentioned in the Ryan Report. This was asked for by the Government once the report was published, and it was realised that the congregations had more of a responsibility than previously thought. It was the Alliance Victim Support Group, giving evidence at the public hearings in 2004, that asked that a benevolent fund be set up for the many who simply could not face the trauma of having their cases heard.