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A crow flies past the Papal Cross in Phoenix Park, in Dublin, Ireland - Source: Reuters -
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A Roman Catholic group at the centre of an inquiry into child abuse in Ireland said it offered a package of 161 million euros ($NZ332 million) in compensation.
Disclosures in May of floggings, slave labour and gang rape in much of Ireland's now defunct system of industrial and reform schools have shamed Irish people and put pressure on religious orders who ran the institutions to pay more for past abuses.
A string of scandals involving priests molesting young boys have eroded the Catholic Church's moral authority in Ireland, once one of the most devout countries in the world.
The Roman Catholic order of Christian Brothers, once the largest provider of residential care for boys in Ireland, said it would pay 30 million euros into a government trust, 4 million for counselling and 127 million for school playing fields.
"The range of incremental measures outlined above follow the Christian Brothers' acceptance, shame and sorrow at the findings of the Ryan Report," the order said in a statement, referring to the inquiry covering the period between the 1930s and 1970s chaired by High Court Justice Sean Ryan.
The order said the offer would bring their total contributions since 1996 to 191 million euros.
The move came as Ireland awaits the publication of a separate report on the handling of allegations of child sex abuse in the archdiocese of Dublin from 1975 to 2004, which Prime Minister Brian Cowen said would be published on Thursday.
"In these days we will be reading of sordid events that took place within the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Dublin," Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said at a ceremony last week.
