Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Again, I also do not want to stray into the Peter McVerry Trust issues at this time. It would be very helpful if the officials were able to provide the committee with a note as to when the terms of reference were agreed. If the Minister could share the terms of reference with us, it would be helpful. When did the review commence? Who is on it and when will it conclude? I certainly would like the committee to have some role in discussing the outcome of the review because it would be useful.

I know the Department is incredibly busy and the officials work very hard but I have had an opportunity to read the 2021 submission to the Department and the letters and there is real alarm in the correspondence received as far back as October 2020. The idea that it would take until some point in 2023 for the review to commence is concerning. I am not the only person who thinks this. If the Minister were able to give us a note with as much information as possible about the process, the committee could then discuss how we want to proceed with it.

There is an outstanding request from the committee to the Department for some documentation to be made available to us for our consideration on how we take forward the issue of the Peter McVerry Trust. There is some frustration that documentation the Minister has which he could share with us is not being shared. I appeal to the Minister to help the committee to do our job properly. We have behaved very responsibly with respect to the issue of the Peter McVerry Trust. We could have all played party politics with it and we chose not to do so. If the committee requests documentation, at a very minimum it should be provided.