Via Election.ie today’s Sunday Tribune is running a story saying the Church wants its legal fees, arising from the Ryan Report, to be covered by the taxpayer:

While the orders are close to a final agreement with the government to make additional contributions of €100m plus properties to the redress scheme, the Sunday Tribune has learned that the Department of Finance has been notified that the orders have applied to have their massive legal bills arising from the Ryan inquiry covered by the taxpayer.

It sounds ridiculous. Scandalous. Beyond the pale. But would you be in any way surprised if we ended up footing the bill? I wouldn’t.

Remember, this is Fianna Fail, the party who did a deal with the religious orders that saw the taxpayer pay the vast majority of the compensation for victims of child abuse. Michael Woods capped their liability at £100m, the rest of the money paid out came from you and I. Even last year he defended that deal even though it is clearly one of the most corrupt, dishonest deals done in the history of this state, and it’s got some stiff competition there.

So while on the face of it we can think the idea of us paying the religious orders legal bills is absurd, it’s hardly unlikely. Brian Cowen leads this government and is still supplicant and deferring to the cunts from Rome. He backed the papal nuncio, doffing his cap to him like this man was some kind of superior, when his actions were indefensible. We needed leadership in the wake of the Murphy and Ryan reports, we got inaction, cover-ups and whitewashes.

Despite everything the religious right still have a stronghold over this country. That the religious orders would even contemplate such a move is outrageous. That is hasn’t already been dismissed out of hand more so. The taxpayer is not liable for the crimes of the church. They are responsible, they should pay.

If they get away with this then what have we learned? What’s different? We might as well just let them do whatever they want. This country is filled with brain-dead apologists for this most corrupt of organisations, sadly too many of them are in government.

The religious orders are like violent, perverted criminals – they fuck us, then rob us.