Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I intend discussing the commitment in the programme for Government to negotiate the transfer of school infrastructure currently owned by 18 religious orders cited in the Ryan report, at no extra cost to the State, with my Cabinet colleagues in the near future. This discussion will take account of my Department's engagement with the congregations regarding the potential use of the various property offers made to date and their acceptability to the State and the congregations' potential to augment their offers, so as to realise a 50:50 sharing of the costs of the response to residential institutional abuse.

Against this background, the formal transfer, without cost to the State, of schools infrastructure could help achieve the 50:50 target. The schools transferred will continue to be used by the religious congregations and/or their successor trusts with the same patronage arrangements as prevail today. The difference would be that the Irish taxpayers, through the State, would be the owners of that educational infrastructure which would continue in use for educational purposes and the issue of change of use would, therefore, be unlikely to arise in the foreseeable future. There will be further engagement with the congregations involved following the Government's consideration of the matter.

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