Paul O’Halloran regularly sees the damage decades of abuse at a Catholic school have had on his community. He’s worried about the impact of the collapse of the Catholic Church-owned insurer and says the church has a responsibility to prop it up so that it can continue to compensate victim-survivors of abuse.

The Catholic Church-owned insurance company that insures Catholic organisations is struggling to keep up with demand for payouts relating to historical child sexual abuse.Catholic organisations need to find insurance elsewhere, but there are concerns they’ll struggle to get cover for abuse claims and smaller organisations won’t have the money to fund future claims.

Catholic Church Insurance (CCI), an insurance company owned by the church that insures Catholic entities, went in to run-off in May, meaning it was not issuing new insurance policies. Ms Fitzpatrick said while CCI was operating in run-off, it “continues to experience financial vulnerability especially as professional standards claims persist”.Under the scheme, if its financial situation worsens further, CCI won’t pay abuse claims in full. How much of each claim would be paid would be determined by the scheme’s manager, theCCI’s financial problems have been building since the royal commission.