Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 95: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if the 18 religious orders who signed the indemnity deal in 2002 with the State have all fully complied with the requests that they have their assets audited; if he will publish the final report of the audit; if progress has been made on renegotiating the indemnity agreement in order that it delivers justice to the victims of institutional child abuse, the taxpayer, and the public at large; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31860/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will be aware that the Taoiseach and relevant Ministers, including myself, met representatives of the religious congregations on 4 and 24 June last. At the meeting on 4 June, the Taoiseach conveyed the views of the Government and this House, that further substantial contributions are required by way of reparation and that these contributions need to 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 a billion euro incurred by the State. At the meeting and subsequently in a press release, the congregations indicated their willingness to make further contributions.

At the subsequent meeting on 24 June, the congregations reported on the progress they had made in compiling reports on their financial positions. The Taoiseach indicated that the Government would appoint a panel of three independent persons to assess the material submitted by the congregations and report to Government as to the adequacy of these statements as a basis for assessing the resources of the congregations.

The appointment of the three person panel by the Government to examine these statements was announced on 28 July. All of the congregations have submitted their statements and I understand that the Panel is well advanced in its work and expects to be in a position to report before the end of October. It is intended that the conclusions of the panel will be made public. In its statement announcing the membership of the Panel, the Government indicated that while the Panel is carrying out its work, it expected that the congregations would be working to produce an offer of a substantial contribution by way of reparation for the suffering of children in residential institutions. The statement was circulated to the leaders of all the congregations and their attention was specifically drawn to this aspect of it.