Controversies
While serving as Minister for Education, Woods signed a controversial agreement with 18 Irish religious orders involved in child sex-abuse scandals which limited their compensation liability to the victims of abuse to only €128 million. This compensation scheme is projected to eventually cost the Irish government, and therefore the Irish tax-payers, €1.35 billion. The agreement was signed just before the 2002 general election, and consequently was not laid before the cabinet for its approval. It then remained unpublished for several months.
In 2003 after brokering the deal, Woods claimed his strong Catholic faith made him the most suitable person to negotiate the deal. He also denied allegations that he was a member of Opus Dei or the Knights of Saint Columbanus after the group Survivors of Child Abuse alleged he was a member of the former.
After the publication of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA), Michael Woods defended the deal, claiming the Department of Education and Science had the management role in the schools in question and that the state knew all the details when making the deal. Mary Raftery criticised his remarks, pointing out that some of them contradicted remarks made by Woods himself. Further, Woods declined to allow CICA to examine the legality of the court orders that committed the child inmates for decades into the industrial school system.
Read more about this topic: Michael Woods (politician)