Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

He is invited here by the bishops and the church. Obviously, the State will make its facilities available for the Head of State of the Vatican. To be honest, I do not know of correspondence being received by the Department from the religious orders but there may well be. I will check that for the Deputy and I will advise her in respect of the mother and baby homes.

Deputy Coppinger raised several questions about the religious institutions and their failure to measure up. I take a very strong view about this. It is Government policy that the church congregations should increase their contributions towards the substantial costs of the redress scheme to achieve a 50% share, as that is only equitable and proper. As things stand, the State and the taxpayer have met some 86% of the cost of redress.

In 2009 the Christian Brothers offered to transfer its 49 school playing fields, valued at €127 million, to a new joint trust between the State and the Edmund Rice Schools Trust. As the initial offer would not result in a tangible contribution towards the cost of redress, the then Minister, Ruairí Quinn, made two counter-proposals to try to progress matters. Unfortunately, the Christian Brothers decided to reject those counter-proposals and, in 2015, decided to proceed to transfer the fields to the Edmund Rice Schools Trust. It is disappointing the Christian Brothers withdrew their offer. I understand the Minister, Deputy Bruton, would be very happy to engage with the congregations to see if a mutually satisfactory solution could be achieved that would make a tangible contribution towards the cost of the redress response.

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