Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I make no apology to this House or to anyone else about the way we did it. We made an apology and said that we would give substantial payments to these individuals, many of whose lives were wrecked. In addition, many of their family lives were non-existent because of what had occurred. The position is that we are paying them and I stand over the decision. I do not believe for a second that we should have taken any more money from the religious institutions in the State. That is my position.

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