Jim McDaid (Donegal North East, Independent)

There has been unfair criticism levelled at the Minister of State in recent months but he has devoted his entire time to this area. We are trying to do a comprehensive job in a sensitive area. The Ryan report is comprehensive and we must ensure that what has been the subject of the report will never happen to our children again. The Minister of State during his contribution stated he has consulted widely with survivor groups in Ireland and Britain. The survivor groups, however, are my concern.

A number of articles have been written, one by Maeve Sheehan in the Sunday Independent, and two by Jennifer Hopp in the Irish Examiner, one on 21 December 2009 and one on 29 May 2010. As a result of those articles I did some further research. They all relate to money. Following my research, I feel it is time for all of those organisations that are currently dealing with victims of abuse to account publicly for all of the funds each has received, how much and how they have been disbursed over the past ten years. They must detail how much they have received from the State and the Roman Catholic Church. There might be a problem getting such information from the Roman Catholic Church but as they are all registered charities, they must have accounts and, consequently, such information should be available.

I am concerned about Ms Sheehan's article, which stated that more funds were being paid to lawyers than going to compensate the victims of child sexual abuse and that Cardinal Brady had been criticised by a solicitor acting for a victim for spending more money defending himself than was currently spent on the victim. The article went on to say that a solicitor acting for a victim of Fr. Brendan Smith said he was incredulous at the cardinal's public expressions of remorse, given his defence of himself in legal proceedings. What was the man to do? Is he not entitled to defined himself?

I looked further into this. With all of the groups involved, there was a multiple of legal representation. How much has been paid in legal fees in this area over the past ten years? Who are ACAL? I looked this up on the survivors' webpage and under the heading of the lawyers, Abney Garrett and McDonald, solicitors, together with a group of other English solicitors, who intend, subject to the approval of the redress board, to co-ordinate all the English claims under ACAL, the association of child abuse lawyers. When I see a league of lawyers I shudder for the outcome for the survivors.

How much money has been paid to ACAL over the last ten years? Abbey, Garrett and McDonald of 37 Station Road, Cheadlehulme are based in Chesire.

Ms Hoff's articles in the Irish Examiner addressed information on funding she had elicited in the last year. ACAL represents Right of Place and One in Four. The article states that Right of Place receives hundreds of thousands of euro in funding from the Government annually. In 2009, the HSE alone allocated €337,500 and the Department of Education and Science €75,331. She continued that since 2002, it has collected more than €2.2 million from the HSE and the health board before that, and more than €1 million from the Department of Education and Science. A further €88,000 was secured in national lottery funding. Right of Place has also received unknown amounts from religious orders. The documents seen by the Irish Examiner show the charity took in at least €100,000 from bishops and religious orders around the country in a three year period. Millions of euros have been given to these organisations and lawyers are queuing up to avail of the funding.

It is about time we had an audit of all of the various organisations that have mushroomed as a result of child sexual abuse over the past number o years. A certain degree of in-fighting has erupted among the groups and the only winners will be the lawyers while the losers, inevitably, will be the victims in the Ryan report.

See this speech in context