Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach said this Government takes nothing off the table and anyone who thinks they will get off the hook is wrong but for his information, this has literally just happened with regard to the redress scheme for mother and baby homes. The Minister went over cap in hand to the Church to try to get a contribution and did not get one. Is the Taoiseach aware of a legal strategy that is being used by the Christian Brothers when survivors take a case against them? They are using a technicality to force survivors who want to sue them to name every member of the order from the time they were abused. This can mean having to find the names of up to 120 people. Oftentimes they have to go to the High Court to try to extract this information from the Christian Brothers and that is just to start the case. Can the Taoiseach imagine how much it costs survivors to take them on? Can he imagine how difficult it is? Can he imagine the trauma that is causing? Why is that legal? In Australia, when religious orders began using despicable defences in court to evade responsibility for child abuse, the parliament changed the law. Why is the Taoiseach not looking at laws like this, which will deliver justice? Has he tried anything other than just appealing to the religious orders to use what he calls their "Christian values"?

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