Mr. James Menton:

This is covered in the Catherine Day report. In the appendix to that report which was an investigation of the role of voluntary hospitals in the State in public healthcare there is clear documentation which illustrates the significant difference, for example, between the strategy pursued by the Mater and the Sisters of Mercy and ourselves in St. Vincent's and the Sisters of Charity. Looking at the appendix, it is clear in relative terms that when you get to the net surplus of the disposal of assets, however that may arise, the proceeds go through a cascading but eventually go back to the Vatican. That is the position in very simple terms. No such construction has been put on the share purchase agreement of the other legal documentation in terms of the Sisters of Charity transferring their shares to SVHG. I cannot speak for the motivation of the Sisters of Charity other than that it wanted to cease their involvement in Irish healthcare. We want it to be a secular organisation to respond to the needs of our patients in modern Ireland. There was a mutually inclusive objective there satisfied. We have our motivation; they have theirs. We did not question theirs and they did not question ours. I can tell the Deputy categorically, however, that we, as a board, would never have accepted a situation where there was some legacy 100 or 150 years from now that would involve some form of mitigation of the objective of becoming a secular organisation.