Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

Of course we were disappointed with the progress made. Did we contact the congregations? Yes, we did. The Taoiseach wrote to them as did my Secretary General, giving them a deadline by which time their contributions would be made known. We are now at a stage where one outstanding contribution is to be made known to me and I understand this will be done during the week. An e-mail or text message was received within the Department this week, indicating clearly that this congregation would be making its offer.

At all times, I was conscious we made a commitment to the survivors to keep them briefed as matters progressed. I was very anxious that when we got the panel's report and the offers I would bring that first to Government, then to the survivors and finally to the public.

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