Two nuns and a religious brother were told by Mr Pat Rabbitte TD yesterday that if they had been negotiating for the State "the taxpayer would be in good hands".
He was addressing Sister Helena O'Donoghue, Sister Elizabeth Maxwell and Brother Kevin Mullan, who were representing 18 congregations which had managed residential institutions for children.
The 18 were party to the controversial 2002 indemnity agreement with the State, dealing with redress for survivors of the institutions.
Mr Rabbitte was speaking at a hearing of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee which the three religious attended "on a voluntary basis", as the chairman, Mr John Perry, said yesterday.
Renegotiation of the deal was "not on", the committee was told by Sister O'Donoghue. She responded to Mr John Dennehy TD that "the deal with the State still stands."
It was, she said, "a fair, just, moral contribution" by the congregations and they (congregations) would shortly have fulfilled all the terms of the agreement relevant to them.
At the end of an almost five-hour session of the committee Mr Dennehy requested that the congregations reconsider the agreement.
Under its terms, the 18 congregations agreed to contribute €128 million in cash and property to the State redress fund for former residents of the institutions.
They were granted an indemnity by the State against future actions by the residents for up to three years after the last day for applications to the Redress Board.
Sister O'Donoghue told the committee she was surprised to discover the indemnity had been extended to cover hospitals and special schools run by the congregations.
It was estimated by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell, in a report last year that the redress scheme could cost the State up to €1 billion.
Yesterday Mr Purcell told the committee the State's current liability, where claims by former residents of industrial schools and reformatories were concerned, stood at €350 million, including legal fees. He said the position could change dramatically if the current rate of claims continued.
To date 3,900 claims from former residents had been received at the Redress Board, he said, and continued to arrive at an average rate of 50 claims a week. So far 1,350 awards had been made by the board, at an average of €87, 373 each.
Sister O'Donoghue told the committee that the congregations had made a voluntary contribution on the basis of undetermined claims and that to contribute on a 50-50 basis would be to assume all the accused were guilty.
The congregations didn't have "an open-ended chequebook", and their resources were circumscribed within the mission and trustee obligations they had.
Brother Mullan said that, based on all claims against the congregations, from minor to very serious, they and their advisers estimated total liability at "€50 million to €60 million."
He told Mr Michael Noonan that they had "no contact with sister or brother congregations abroad" when it came to legal advice during negotiations of the agreement with the State.
Sister Maxwell explained to Mr Seán Fleming that in August 2000 she had seen a report in the media which suggested there might be a compensation element to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.
She contacted officials at the Department of Education to see if it was so. The issue was discussed with Government officials at a meeting on September 25th, 2000, and the religious were given a month to consult on the matter.
She was "taken somewhat by surprise" when it was announced on October 3rd by the Government that a redress scheme was planned, but by then she felt confident enough to say on October 4th that the religious would contribute to such a scheme."
Earlier, she said the congregations had had no contact with the Government, and no advance knowledge prior to the Taoiseach's apology to former residents of the institutions on May 11th, 1999.
