The Government is to appoint a three-person panel to assess the assets of 18 religious congregations whose management of residential institutions for children gave rise to the Ryan Report, published last month.

Representatives of the congregations met the Taoiseach Brian Cowen, as well as the Ministers for Eduation Batt O'Keeffe, the Minister for Health Mary Harney, the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern and the Minister for Children Barry Andrews at Government Buildings in Dublin for about an hour this evening.

It was agreed at the meeting that the congregations will submit reports on their assets, signed off on by their financial advisors, to the Government by the middle of next month.

A further meeting between the Taoiseach, the relevant Government Ministers and represenatatives of the 18 congregagtions will take place at that time.

At the conclusion of the meeting the Taoiseach said that the Government would now appoint a panel of three eminent independent people to assess the material submitted by the congregations next month. The panel would then report back to the Government as to the adequacy of that material as a basis for assessing the resources of the congregations, he said in a statement.

Speaking to the media on behalf of the congregations after the meeting, Rosminian provincial Fr Joe O'Reilly said that following that report from the independent panel to Government “there will be further contacts to discuss the nature and extent of contributions to Government from the congregations.”

The 18 congregations agreed to an audit of their resources at a meeting on June 5th with the Taoiseach and the same Government Ministers.

The congregations agreed then to contribute to a trust proposed by the Taoiseach so that further financial and other supports can be provided to people who had been in the institutions as children. The religious also committed themselves to identifying resources, “both financial and other, within a transparent process with a view to delivering upon commitments” made at that meeting.

The Taoiseach had told the congregations that he “must express the dismay and abhorrence which, with the whole of the population, we have experienced on reading the [Ryan] report”. He noted that “some of the severest conclusions reached by the [Ryan] commission regarding religious orders relate to recent attitudes and behaviour”.

He told them that further substantial contributions are required by way of reparation and that these “need to be capable of being assessed by the public for their significance by reference to the full resources available to the congregations and in a context of the costs of well over a billion euro being incurred by the State”.

Calling for a comprehensive, specific response from the congregations, he reminded them that the response may have profound implications for the wellbeing of survivors of abuse in affirming their dignity. “It may also influence how the Irish people, who have been so loyally supportive of your congregations over many years, may judge finally the extent to which your organisations live up to their foundational values.”