The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, has insisted he will seek a cash payment from religious orders if he determines that they will not provide acceptable property for the compensation fund for abuse victims.
This is despite the terms of the church-State deal on the compensation fund, which does not appear to offer any legal mechanism for the State to demand cash if it finds the property offered unacceptable.
After announcing the State's rejection of €10 million worth of property which it considers to be unsuitable, Mr Dempsey maintained yesterday that he would demand cash from the religious congregations if they were unable meet their obligations.
He adopted this robust stance as the Labour Party leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, suggested "that there are forces at work whose predominant motives are the concealment of the truth and the protection of our institutional interests rather than the vindication of the rights of those who have suffered so much".
Despite Mr Dempsey's determination to seek cash, the controversial church-State deal indemnifying religious orders against compensation claims from abuse survivors does not provide for a Government demand for a straight cash payment.
Rather, if the State deems property offered by the congregations as unacceptable, the orders can then come back with an offer of different property and, the deal indicates, they can do this repeatedly if a series of properties are rejected.
The deal says that, if there is a shortfall in the value of property offered by the religious, "the contributing congregations shall be entitled to make up the shortfall in cash and/or non-cash assets (comprising real property)". They must do this within six months of being told of the shortfall, it says. However, the entitlement of the religious to continue to offer substitute properties suggests this process could go on for a protracted period before cash could be demanded.
A spokeswoman for the Minister insisted yesterday that the matter would not be allowed to drag on indefinitely. "We will seek a cash payment if we feel we are not making any further progress on properties," she said.
Government sources added that any attempt to offer serially unsuitable properties would be against the spirit of the deal and would be met by a Government call for cash. The controversial church-State deal states that the religious orders will pay €128 million towards a compensation fund for abuse survivors.
Estimates of how much the fund will be asked to pay range from €500,000 to €1 billion, with the State therefore paying between 75 per cent and 85 per cent of the bill.
Under the deal the religious must pay €41.4 million in cash and €76.8 million in property, and provide counselling and support services to the value of €10 million to the State.
However, the arrangement has been criticised, not only because the religious are paying a small proportion of the cost, but also on the grounds that much of the property being counted towards the religious contribution had already been transferred to the State for other reasons.
The Minister announced on Thursday that he had accepted just a quarter of the total property offered, 32 properties worth some €19.5 million. A further €40.32 million worth was still being considered, while five properties worth €10 million had been rejected.
Mr Dempsey said yesterday that "if they can't meet their obligations they must pay cash". Questioned as to how he could make such a demand under the terms of the church-State deal, Mr Dempsey insisted he would do so, and that he wanted the money "as soon as practically possible".