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Ireland's most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Sean Brady, today called for a
controversial compensation deal for victims of child abuse by religious orders
to be looked at again.

The Church hierarchy met in Maynooth amid increasing pressure on the 18 orders
to increase their share of the final bill following the damning findings of the
Ryan inquiry.

At present their contribution to the victims' fund is capped at 127 million
euro out of the possible total of 1.2 billion euro.

Cardinal Sean Brady revealed Judge Sean Ryan's report on the decades of
clerical child abuse in institutions would be discussed with Pope Benedict.

"It (the deal) should be revisited, and taken into consideration the potential
of people's to pay, and the needs above all of the victims. We have to keep
coming back to that," he said.

The standing committee of the Conference of Bishops, led by Cardinal Sean Brady
and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, met in Maynooth to discuss plans for their
three-day summer meeting on June 8.

The 26 heads of dioceses in the Republic and Northern Ireland will gather for
one of only four meetings a year with the shocking Ryan report likely to be top
of the agenda.

It is understood the hierarchy's response to Judge Ryan's report on the
Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse was also discussed today.

Archbishop Martin has severely criticised the orders for failing to fully
implement the compensation scheme, agreed between the state and the Conference
of Religious of Ireland in 2002.

The contract gave the Government property and payments worth 127m euro but left
the taxpayer to foot the massive bill for a redress scheme for victims.

Cardinal Brady's personal assistant Fr Tim Bartlett has also called for the
religious orders to re-examine the compensation scheme.

Michael Fitzpatrick