The transfer of Mercy Mounthawk school to State ownership under an agreement made 22 years ago has still not taken place.
In 2002, the Tralee secondary school was to be transferred from the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy to the Minister for Education.
The transfer was part of an indemnity deal agreed that year between the then Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats government and 18 religious orders.
Under the 2002 agreement, the religious orders were awarded indemnity against all legal claims of residential institutional abuse if they paid €128 million in cash and property to the State.
By 2021, the State had paid out some €1.5 billion to survivors of childhood abuse in institutions run by religious orders.
There was no public scrutiny of the deal; the Oireachtas did not vote on the agreement and the then Attorney General Michael McDowell had only limited knowledge of it.
Under the deal, Mercy Mounthawk Secondary School was to be transferred from the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy Southern Province to the Minister for Education.
Twenty-two years on, this still hasn't happened.
A Department of Education document from 2018 said the transfer had been delayed because of outstanding title-related issues. The document stated that legal representative of the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy had been awaiting confirmation that the outstanding boundary litigation had been resolved.
The department now says outstanding litigation relating to the boundary dispute has been resolved but that because it’s a legal process, it’s not possible to give an exact time frame as to when the transfer of Mercy Mounthawk to the State will be completed.
The department says the transfer is being treated as a priority and that it looks forward to it being processed as soon as possible; it’s been in contact with the Chief State Solicitor’s Office to expedite the matter.
The delay in transferring the school to State ownership doesn’t impact on the day-to-day running of Mercy Mounthawk Secondary School as the Department of Education is in occupation of the property and is providing services.
