Are we facing bankruptcy?

Charlie McCreevey was on the news at one saying the government are committed to paying the bill for abuse victims, even if it totals more than 1 billion.
Given the countries worsening financial situation are we facing into a decade of cutbacks like the eighties.
Is there no other way that victims can be compensated other than paying out big cash payments?.Could the state not look after these people in other ways, such as providing them with state benefits they might not be ordinarily entitled to such as medical cards, housing etc.

Compensation

That would still end up costing us money. I believe that what these people went through is horrific, but money is no compensation for what they have gone through. Like the north, healing should be based on forgiveness, and those proven to have caused abuse should be brought to justice.

Re: Compensation

The church should be held accountable they should be made to sell some of their precious property to compensate these victims, but as usual the goverment has come to their rescue with bags of money, taxpayers money..

Bad

I agree with shnaek, and I think every victim should be allowed a platform to tell their story and vent their anger. Why not?
Only trouble is, this would take years (I'm ok with that) and the main beneficiaries are the legal profession (I've a problem with that!), fees fees, and more bloody fees!

I also agree with Dobber22. The church is an extremely well run business (who else would have taken the chance to ceiling the compo payout with this idiotic government!!).

Recently in Cork, they (church) sold land to Tesco (I think?) in Wilton, and would have fetched hundreds of thousands for it - where is that money put? Also, why not sell the monasteries and convents that cannot be filled anymore due to lack of brothers and nuns, and pool that money into the compo fund for victims.
Why not, wasn't it their deranged clergy who were responsible in the first place?

This is not a defense of the church

"The church" is commonly referred to as a single entity. It is not. CORI (Conference of Religious in Ireland) represent over one hundred diffenent religious organisations. Only 18 are involved in the current debacle of the €128 milliion deal. I accept that other abuse has occured in relation to the other members of CORI.

The sale of land by a catholic body can not be directly related to the deal. Many of the assests of the various bodies are held in trusts which have specific controls as to what the money can be used for. It is not the property of the church(there I've done it as well), it belongs to the trust and the specific institution benifits.

What happeens when they run out ofnuns, brothers, and priests is an interesting question.

Nogser

PS According to a recent survey the car is the place where most praying occurs. Perhaps we should increase road tax to finance the deal? :rollin

CORI and Woods

Nogser, that's an interesting reply.

Who did Michael Woods deal with? Was it CORI that he negotiated his €128 deal?