Don't know so much about other countries,Joe,but I'd trust the courts in UK, Ireland and the USA to fix compensation fairly, however many dollars it is. And large awards won't surprise me, because often we are talking about lives totally screwed. Totally.

If a bishop wants to pay hush money to keep something out of court, that's up to the bishop, assuming he can find the cash, which they usually manage to do. For the catholic church to plead poverty is a bit rich anyway, though maybe it would be richer still if it had got away with the Banco Ambrosiano scam. (The Vatican had to give archbishop Marcinkus diplomatic protection from the law over that one.)

Joe, do you have a view about whether Irish influence might be a factor as one or two have suggested? I'm not aware of much evidence to support it.