Under the terms of the indemnity agreement between the State and CORI signed on 5 June 2002, the State had a period of nine months to consider the properties offered by the religious congregations in respect of the properties to be transferred list. On 5 March 2003, officials at the residential institutions redress unit of my Department requested a further period of two months in order to give further consideration to a number of the properties on offer. CORI agreed to this request. Following further examination of the properties on offer, officials at my Department wrote to CORI's legal representatives and outlined a number of properties which the State was prepared to accept a fee simple interest in. However, a number of other properties were rejected on the basis that no benefit to the State could be identified by acquiring a title.
Section 8 of the agreement states that in the event that the State party rejects a property offered, the religious congregation has the right to replace the property with an alternative property or cash sum equivalent. CORI can now submit a schedule of alternative properties which the congregations propose to offer the State in place of the properties the State has declined. The nine month period for consideration of these properties will then commence. As negotiations are ongoing and the issue is commercially sensitive, I do not intend giving any details of the property aspect of the agreement at this stage. When agreement is reached, a list of the properties will be made available.
There is no time limit of nine months on the schedule entitled properties already transferred. Officials from my Department have sought additional information from CORI to ensure that each of these properties qualify under the criteria laid down in the indemnity agreement regarding valuation, title and restriction on transfer for a 25 year period. To date, none of the properties on this list has been accepted.