Time for Church to settle its bill
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Today's remarkable report concerning Church property is a timely reminder of a decidedly dodgy deal done in 2002 without the imprimatur of its main player, the taxpayer. It is time to be indignant all over again.
Religious orders were facing massive compensatory claims from former residents of institutions in which abuse of children had been rife.
In an extraordinarily generous, or perhaps naïve deal, the then Education Minister Michael Woods agreed to cap the Catholic Church's liability at €128m, consisting of €66m worth of property to be handed over to the State, plus cash and services. The State would pay the balance of the compensation, then anticipated to be about €500m. In fact, the claims have exceeded one billion euro.
Moreover, just 21 of the 64 original properties have been handed over by the Church.
The reason for this appears to be the arcane records of some properties, coupled with the State's rejection of some offerings which were not considered up to standard. Nevertheless, the process initiated by Mr Woods, with the approval of then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, is proving painfully slow.
On the plus side, despite the intervening downturn, the properties in question have not lost value since the deal was done in 2002.
In the circumstances, and bearing in mind the actions which made the deal necessary in the first place, the suggestion from the Labour Education spokesman, Ruairi Quinn, that schools owned by the Church be now handed over to the State appears eminently sensible and just.
