Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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42. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to make recommendations to Cabinet with regard to a review of the congregational indemnity agreement, in view of the revelations concerning the mother and baby home in Tuam; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15220/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I do not have any plans to make recommendations to Cabinet in relation the Congregational Indemnity Agreement.

As the Deputy may be aware, this agreement was negotiated 15 year ago and relates to the contribution of 18 religious Orders to the cost of the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme. My colleague the Minister for Education and Skills is currently responsible for these arrangements and the question raised by the Deputy would be a matter for Minister Bruton and his department.

I will point out that the religious Order which was involved in the operation of the former Tuam Mother and Baby Home was not a party to this agreement. Furthermore, although the Commission has advised that it has now concluded its physical excavations at Tuam, it is essential to recognise that it has not yet reached any formal conclusions about the site or the running of the Home. For this reason, the Commission must be facilitated to complete its objective investigations, to establish the facts of what happened and to issue its reports in accordance with its legal framework.