Shroud of secrecy must be lifted

THE shroud of secrecy surrounding the sweetheart deal between Church and State on compensation for clerical child abuse takes on a more ominous aspect when coupled with the destruction of records relating to the benchmarking agreement between Government and the public service unions.

Mind boggling is the only way to describe how former Education Minister Dr Michael Woods and his officials failed to keep contemporaneous records of crucial negotiations with the religious orders.

Equally inexplicable was the burning of research documentation used to lay the foundations of the highly contentious benchmarking deal.