The 2002 Indemnity Agreement between the Government and religious congregations provided for a collective contribution of €128 million from the 18 participating congregations in cash, counselling services and property.
The cash contributions of €54.42m under the Agreement have been received while information has been provided to my Department that confirms that counselling services in excess of the €10m provided for in the agreement have been funded directly by the contributing congregations.
With regard to property, my Department agreed in principle with CORI, under whose auspices the Agreement was negotiated, that a total of 64 properties would be accepted under the Agreement subject to good and marketable title and agreed valuations. This number was reduced to 61 when the Department accepted and received a cash sum in lieu of three properties where good and marketable title could not be established. A total of 50 properties have been fully transferred and there are no outstanding issues. These properties are valued at €48.47 million in total. When combined with the cash and counselling contributions referred to above, a total of €112.9 million representing 88% of the amount provided for in the Agreement has been received.
Work to complete the outstanding property transfers is actively progressing and I should point out that in most of the remaining cases the transfer process is at a very advanced stage. It is worth noting also that most of the properties are already in use by the intended recipients.
As the Agreement provided for a collective contribution it is not possible to provide a complete breakdown of the contributions on a congregational basis.
For the sake of completeness I should point out that in response to the call for further substantial contributions towards the costs of redress made in the aftermath of the publication of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (the Ryan Report), many of the congregations that were party to the 2002 Indemnity Agreement made offers which, in total, were valued at €352.6m. I should stress that these offers are voluntary and do not form part of any agreement.
One significant element of the most recent offer, relating to playing fields and associated lands, valued at €127million, was withdrawn by the Christian Brothers. When this is combined with some changes in the valuation of properties previously offered, the total value of the voluntary offers currently in place stands at €193 million, of which contributions of cash and property amounting to some €96.1 million have been realised.
When the contributions provided for in the 2002 Agreement are combined with the subsequent voluntary offers, the maximum total contribution that might be realised stands at €321 million of which amount €209 million has been received.
