Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 45: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the progress made regarding the renegotiation of the indemnity agreement of 2001 signed between the State and the 18 religious teaching orders to cover the expenses covered by the Residential Institutions Redress Board; if he will publish the findings of the audit into the assets of the 18 religious teaching orders; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44099/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Following the publication of the Ryan report, this House passed a unanimous motion calling on the congregations to commit to making further substantial contributions by way of reparation. In June of this year, the Taoiseach and the relevant Ministers, including me, met representatives of the 18 religious congregations that were party to the 2002 indemnity agreement. The congregations indicated their willingness to make further contributions. Any such contributions are separate from the 2002 indemnity agreement and associated contributions.

The Government has made clear that these contributions must be capable of being assessed by the public for their significance by reference to the full resources available to the congregations and in the context of the costs of well over €1 billion incurred by the State. In this context, the Government appointed a panel of three independent persons to assess the financial statements submitted by the congregations and to report to Government as to the adequacy of these statements as a basis for assessing the resources of the congregations. The panel submitted its report at the end of October. The report was examined within my Department and a number of clarifications were sought from the panel. In response, the panel elaborated on the relevant points within the context of its report and submitted an expanded report on 25 November 2009. Although an overall offer of a contribution on behalf of the congregations collectively was sought, the congregations' responses have been on an individual basis. I expect to have the complete set of responses from the congregations in the next day or so.

I will bring the panel's report and details of the congregations' offers of contributions to the attention of the Government at the earliest opportunity. The position in respect of publication is that while it has always been the intention to publish the conclusions of the panel and the offers from the congregations, the arrangements for publication will be considered by the Government. In this regard, I am concerned to ensure that the survivors and their representatives are kept fully informed of developments. Deputies will be aware that some religious congregations have published their individual offers and details of their respective financial positions. Although the approach taken by an individual congregation is a matter for it, my objective is to have the collective comprehensive position available.

Once the full position is known, the Government will consider the uses to which the contributions will be put, in consultation with the representatives of the survivors and the congregations.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Is the Minister disappointed by the slow progress made and the loss of the sense of urgency that dominated the State in June when he met with these people? What has he done, personally, to accelerate the process and ensure the congregations which met collectively with him will provide the information in an effective and proper manner? This was not money they generated themselves but was taxpayers' money that went into the private coffers of congregations.

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

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I suspect the Minister and I have very similar personal views on these matters, particularly on the recent revelations. We are of a similar age.

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I thought the Deputy was younger than me.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Not that much younger, and the Minister has more hair than I have. I ask him, as Minister for Education and Science, to introduce a sense of urgency with regard to the relationship the religious teaching orders and other aspects of the Catholic Church have with the citizens of this Republic. In that context, would he contemplate introducing a name-and-shame policy if these congregations do not provide the information ? We reluctantly did this with regard to citizens who are taxpayers. Why can we not do it to congregations which have cost the taxpayers of this Republic €1.3 billion?

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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The idea that one of the congregations would simply text or e-mail the Minister as to its latest position speaks volumes about the attitude that still exists towards the State among those congregations. I am aware of one congregation that has made public the new funds it wishes to make available to victims and to the State. Can I take it the Minister will now call on all remaining congregations to make their new offers public so that the people can see the additional sums or assets they now wish to give in reparation for the damage caused?

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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There are two issues here. We wanted to do the opposite, namely, not to make the contributions public because I wanted to give the survivors an opportunity to be the first to know, after the Government had considered both the panel report and the offers made.

With regard to Deputy Quinn's point, the important thing is that when the Taoiseach and other Ministers met them the congregations indicated quite clearly they were prepared to make a substantial contribution. We now have the panel's report from the three individuals who did an outstanding job and graciously did not charge any fee for it. That is now available and will go to Government, probably in the week after the budget on the basis of this latest and final offer that came in. The Government will consider the assets vis-À-vis the cash in hand and the offer made. It is then a matter for Government to decide where it wishes to go from there.