Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Yes. That matter was mentioned to me by the moderator. I asked the official attending the meeting to follow up on that and to contact the Department of Justice and Law Reform to determine in what way we might be able to assist if there are individual cases where problems are being experienced regarding people from outside the country coming to work here as ministers in the various churches. If there was a question of families coming at a later stage not being accommodated as one would like, that is something we would need to examine to determine in what way we can adapt our procedures to make sure we deal in a humane way with any issues that arise, that the bureaucratic response does not dominate the position and that we can sort it out. That is something I have asked to have examined and wish to talk to the Presbyterian Church about to determine the specifics in any given case.

Regarding the other matter, valuations have been placed on the properties by the congregations themselves. What we must do is work through these issues. The objective is to reach a 50-50 position. The purpose of the expert panel was to evaluate, based on the congregations' submissions and the interaction that took place between the expert panel and the congregations, the full position regarding their assets and their liabilities. There is also the concern of congregations, which is justified, in terms of how they care for the elderly members of their own congregations and provide for them for the future, which is fair enough. That needs to be examined also. Subject to the valuations submitted, the Government made the point that in its view further contributions would be required. It is an ongoing process to see how we can work with them to get to that point and achieve that objective. The benefit of the expert panel's work is that we have a clearer view as to the real position rather than relying on anecdotal evidence which only causes confusion and raises or lowers expectations as to what is available for further consideration in dealing with this issue adequately. We must get that objective evidence and work in as practical a way as possible towards dealing with it.

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