Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I recall that I raised this issue in connection with the redress board and the very detailed report of the Comptroller and Auditor General. We realised then that there were outstanding moneys and there were two different agreements. The 2002 agreement is legally enforceable. Some 3%, €4.21 million, of what was agreed under that has yet to be realised.

The Ryan report was then published, with all its stories of pain and horror. I will not go into it. In a different life I was there and had the privilege of seeing it first-hand. As a result of that, the 18 congregations were again asked to contribute. Some 15 of them did. They came forward with a new agreement in 2009. I want to thank Mr. Ó Foghlú for doing his best with all of these letters. It has certainly improved the detail. It has taken some time and I thank him. I hope that level of clarity will continue because it will help us get our heads around it. Even with this level of clarity it is difficult, because the Christian Brothers are thrown in there with €127 million. I am sure Dublin TDs will have a particular interest in that.

Where am I going with this? We were unaware of this except for the general assurances that these two agreements were in place, one legally enforceable and the other not. In Galway there is a particular property which is symbolic. It is an industrial school in Taylor's Hill that by the Department's admission has been empty since 2011. My knowledge tells me it has been empty for even longer. It was functioning as a childcare centre. It has been empty since. Why I am zoning in on this? Galway 2020 made the very positive announcement that the nuns had contributed this building as a gift to the city. That upset me and a lot of other people. There is no place for emotion on this committee, but that was wrong. It was not a gift. It was part of a package from 2009. As such, the narrative continued to be a false one right up to 2017 and 2018. That is the difficulty about openness and accountability. If the city council had announced that this was not a gift but part of a redress package, particularly the 2009 one, it would have been very helpful to the narrative and to healing. Had they put the survivors at the top of the list, that would have been very helpful.

I notice that there has been a change in language today. I note the property I have mentioned has still not been transferred. The report states that if the city council assumes ownership of the property it plans to renovate "this will include consultation and engagement with interested stakeholders, especially persons who were associated with the property in its many previous guises". That is the first time this has been recognised.

I will come to a general point in a minute if members will bear with me. This is one example where a building has remained unnecessarily empty since 2009. Whatever value it had then has depreciated because it is has become dilapidated. While there is a positive story, in that the city is going to gain, no explanation has ever been given for the building being empty from 2009, despite the fact that the city council tabled a motion at the time asking for it to be transferred. That is just one example of how these agreements are implemented, or not implemented, without monitoring.

I refer to the second agreement in 2009, as part of which 15 congregations came forward. Somebody may correct me here, because I am not an expert in figures. Some 53% of that has yet to be realised. That is outlined on page 1 of the report. This is subject to a few small considerations. That is totally unacceptable. This is 2018. Notwithstanding that it is not legally enforceable, the congregations came forward willingly on the basis of what was set out in the Ryan report, the results of that report and the amount paid by the State for the redress board. The Comptroller and Auditor General might remind me. I think it was €1 billion but that may be clarified. The congregations came forward with a contribution of which 53% still has be implemented in 2018.