Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Could the Taoiseach advise us how much money is still owed by the churches in respect of the redress scheme for institutional abuse and the sums they agreed to pay towards it, small as they are? It is important we know whether these amounts are outstanding and, if so, how much.

Has he raised the issue of the ownership of school properties and lands at his discussions? Almost all were the product of public donations rather than the private contributions of those orders. The public of 100 years ago gave donations to buy the church lands and to build the church institutions. I am concerned that an air of enormous fragility now attaches to those properties and lands, particularly because of what has happened in a number of recent cases in which different orders have moved to sell off playing fields used by schools. That is not good enough in terms of religious bodies having an active and ethical citizenship in our country. They are privileged to meet the Taoiseach but they see themselves as private property owners and consider how they deal with their private property, which was previously donated by the public, as their private business. I have attended those meetings and I would like to think that the Taoiseach would have the courage to raise these fundamental issues about what are public assets, if one looks at it in a broad historical context, the ownership of which, however, may legally rest with a particular order. As has been said, trustees and other lay representatives now control what happens to these valuable educational and community assets.

See this speech in context