Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will ask and get a reply. We will come back then. We will note that and we will follow it up with the specific questions raised. Correspondence No. 1092C from an individual dated 16 February regarding the sale of land by the congregation of Christian Brothers at Clonkeen College in Blackrock in County Dublin. The individual wrote to the committee regarding this matter last year. We sent the response from the Department of Education and Skills to the individual. The person has now asked the committee to look at the role of the Department of Education and Skills arising from its failure to safeguard fully the State's investment in schools that were built on land owned by third parties, and in particular on lands owned by religious orders.

This may be an interesting point. I propose we write to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for an information note on the models used to protect capital investment by the State on land owned by private or charity entities. This has far reaching effects, with the State investing money in lands not in its ownership. A local authority would not build a house on land it did not have the title deeds to. We want to get a note from Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on that. We will come back to that broad issue. Agreed.

The next item is correspondence 1093 from Deputy Alan Kelly suggesting amendments to our working document in relation to our report. We will come to that in private session and we will have another meeting after today before we finalise it.