Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

I second Senator Norris's amendment to the effect that the debate, which is important, should be held today.

Will the Leader arrange for the Minister for Education and Science to answer a few questions on these institutions at the start of tomorrow's debate? Is it the case they do not have enough funding to give to the State? Are they concerned the services provided by them will be curtailed or suspended if they must pay an additional amount? Are they simply sticking to an agreement made with the State so they can keep their millions of euro for themselves? These questions should be answered by the Minister at the outset tomorrow so we can know the ground rules.

The Minister must discuss the 1999 agreement. Through the report, it has come to light that information available to the institutions was not provided to the then Minister. Failure to disclose all information or the deliberate hiding of information breaks the terms of any contract. The current Minister claims he cannot renegotiate it, but he can do so by proving the contract was invalid from day one because information was not disclosed. If he has written any other type of contract with the institutions, he is a greater eejit than anyone could possibly have believed.

The State can issue threats to institutions that refuse to co-operate. Removing their charitable status would be easy. They would need to pay corporate and other taxes like everyone else. In this way, the State could get the money quickly. Other avenues are open to the Minister besides holding his head and claiming he can do nothing about it. He can do a lot. Before he does so, perhaps the institutions should be given a chance to explain why they believe they cannot or should not pay the additional amount.