Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the update from Mr. Ó Foghlú. It is clear. What is not clear is why it has taken so long. Going back to the 2002 indemnity agreement, 16 years later, five properties remain to be transferred fully. It was expected that four of these properties would have transferred by the end of quarter 3 of this year. The current position is that three of the five will transfer by the end of the year, one by the first half of next year, and I do not know when the fifth will transfer. That is outstanding.

If we go to the 2009 voluntary offers, I have followed matters up with the assistance of the Chair, who has been very attentive to it. They arose as a result of the Ryan report and its damning findings. Properties were offered on a voluntary basis. We were led to believe there would be no difficulty. That was in 2009 and of those 18 properties, nine still have not been transferred in 2018. I see that there is progress and that a lot of those buildings and properties are in use by various State bodies. I welcome that.

Coming to Galway and St. Anne's, Lenaboy, if anything typifies or brings into acute focus this whole scheme it is Lenaboy in Galway, which I think is empty since 2009 although I am told it has been empty officially since 2011. Galway City Council announced it was a gift. I have gone into that background and will not do so again. It was not a gift. It was given by way of redress. It has, inexplicably, remained empty since 2009 or at least 2011, and now we are told that a geophysical survey was carried out. I realise that was under way. I did not realise the city council had requested it. I understand that the results of the geophysical survey have not yet been provided to the congregation. A geophysical survey was commissioned. It is very important to see the results.

The context of the mother and baby home in Tuam is only relevant to today's proceedings insofar as we again have a Minister saying that the sisters of the Bon Secours are willing to give so much money. We are back again. We do not know the circumstances. It seems the Minister approached them for a contribution but it is not put in context. It is very important to give context in these matters. The context here is that this particular building at Lenaboy was never given as a gift. It was given as redress and it is inexplicably empty and deteriorating at a terrible rate since it became empty. In this regard and in respect of the other ones, I simply do not understand the role of the Department of Education and Skills or how it failed to ensure these agreements were complied with in a more speedy fashion. I do welcome the Department's continual updates and I welcome the progress.