Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said any property interests retained by the Catholic Church in hospitals, such as the Mater and St Vincent's in Dublin should now be handed over to the State.

Mr Martin said that the State has already invested heavily in these hospitals and is essentially running them.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Sean O'Rourke, he added that ethical committees owe more to medicine than religious ethos.

"In my view any area in education or health, where fundamentally the State has made a large investment and continued to make the investment for over 30 or 40 years, when that comes to an end, the utilisation of that facility for those purposes, I think those facilities should then revert to the State."

The Catholic bishops meeting in Maynooth said Mr Martin's statement was a matter for the individual congregations of nuns concerned.

Mr Martin said that the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes must be broadened and a forum established for all families and victims of mother-and-baby homes.

This, he said, would give them opportunities to articulate their needs and the current-day society in responding to those needs.

Mr Martin said that the homes speak to a very dark side of Ireland’s history where an invasive church governed families and the lives of people.

Mr Martin said that children must be prioritised in the next budget.

He said looking back at how children were treated in the past, in certain circumstances, can inform how we deal with things currently.