Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 14: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when will he negotiate the transfer of school infrastructure currently owned by the 18 religious orders cited in the Ryan Report to the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5507/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Programme for Government contains a commitment to negotiate the transfer of school infrastructure currently owned by 18 religious orders cited in Ryan Report, at no extra cost, to the State.

Following publication of the Ryan Report in May 2009, the then Government and this House called on the Congregations to commit to making further substantial contributions by way of reparation. In response the Congregations offered additional contributions, which included various property transfer proposals to different State bodies and voluntary organisations. My Department, as lead Department handling these matters, has been liaising with the Congregations and the various State bodies to determine the potential use of the various property offers and their acceptability to the State. The potential for the Congregations to augment their offers, so as to realise a 50:50 sharing of the costs of the response to residential institutional abuse, has also been pursued with the Congregations.

The cost of the response to residential institutional abuse is estimated at €1.36 billion. The contribution of the 18 congregations under the 2002 Indemnity Agreement amounted to €128 million. They have since committed to some €110 million to a Statutory Fund for former residents of which €20.6m has been received. They have also offered additional properties which they value at €235.5m. Even if all of these properties were to be acceptable to the State and their values confirmed there would be a shortfall of over €200 million below the 50:50 target.

Against this background the formal transfer, without cost to the State, of schools infrastructure could help achieve the 50:50 target. Apart from the potential for achieving diversity within the education system over time, which I am beginning to address separately through a Forum on Patronage and Pluralism at primary level, the schools transferred could continue to be used by the religious congregations and or their successor trusts with the same patronage arrangements as prevail today. The difference would be that the Irish taxpayer, through the State, would be the owners of that educational infrastructure.