DUBLIN — Ireland’s government announced Tuesday it will summon 18 orders of Roman Catholic brothers and nuns and demand they contribute more funds to the thousands of people who suffered rampant sexual and psychological abuse in church-run residences for children.
Prime Minister Brian Cowen said his government fully accepted the damning findings from a nine-year investigation into scores of state-funded, church-run schools for Ireland’s poorest children.
Since the abuse report’s publication last week, the orders have insisted they won’t contribute more to a 2002 deal with the government that left taxpayers to pay almost all of the $1.5 billion legal bill for 14,000 abuse settlements.
But the orders have suggested they might spend more on support services for their victims — an offer dismissed as inadequate and inappropriate by embittered victims’ groups.
