Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to refer briefly to this matter because today's edition of The Irish Timescontains quite an amount of information and freedom of information material which indicates that approximately €300 million is still outstanding in relation to the indemnification that was agreed in 2002 by the various religious orders. The reason that is given for this is the fluctuation in market prices. I would like to ask the Comptroller and Auditor General, if appropriate, how commitments that are made in this manner are reflected in financial statements and analyses. Can one pass over responsibility for an inability to sell properties, or an inability to get what was thought at one time to be an appropriate valuation for those properties? Does the contract remain the same? When that is reported in a financial statement, how does the Comptroller and Auditor General reflect that particular aspect of it?