Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

We need to seek that report from the Department of Education and finalise the outstanding issues in terms of the transfers. We did get a report on that in relation to this piece of correspondence. As was said, this goes back to the indemnity agreement. The nation was appalled by the Ryan report where there were voluntary transfers. People took it at face value that there would be goodwill behind these, given that in 2009 they were offered.

As it was a long list, the last Committee of Public Accounts focused on it. We started to see a considerable amount of progress made on some of the outstanding transfers. These transfers were offered in the context of reports that absolutely horrified the nation in terms of the abuse of children. It probably would come as a surprise to people that the transfer is still not completed, both from the 2002 and 2009 offers. The State picked up a very sizeable burden while the religious institutions involved got off very lightly in terms of the overall cost.

It is just unacceptable that we still have some of these outstanding at this stage. We must ensure the Department of Education continues to get these properties fully transferred and that we can close off on this. It is obvious that voluntary transfers in this kind of scenario are something from which we should learn a lesson. It simply should never happen again.

Essentially, the people who lose out on this are the people who have been impacted by it. Obviously, we sought this information in the context of Caranua which was set up to assist some of those affected by what was effectively incarceration. We need that report from the Department on the impediments on all of those transfers, as well as the findings and the learnings from the difference between where there was an indemnity agreement and where there was not.

There has to be some closure on this. If it had not been for the last Committee of Public Accounts, that list would be longer. It is unacceptable that we are still at a point where some of those properties have not been transferred.