By Conor Ryan, Investigative Correspondent
THURSDAY, JULY 07, 2011
JUST seven of the 200 religious-run schools worth over €1 million each have been offered as part of contributions to the abuse compensation fund, it has emerged.
Figures compiled by the Irish Examiner also show none of the 46 schools worth over €5m each are on the table as part of the talks between the Government and the 18 religious orders named in the Ryan Report.
Nineteen of the more lucrative school sites are worth a combined €301m, including the Sisters of Mercy secondary school campus at Ballyroan in south-west Dublin, which has a price tag of €33.5m.
Some 15 of this order’s schools were worth in excess of €10m when its assets were assessed in mid-2009.
To date, the 18 orders have offered just 12 schools worth €18m to the state — all bar one are from the Sisters of Mercy.
The Sisters of St Clare has offered a €275,000 former primary school in Cavan.
Education Minister Ruairí Quinn told the orders their offers do not go far enough to meeting the cost of the €1.3 billion redress bill.
He said, because of the lack of offers and the unsuitability of certain properties, the religious congregations needed to find over €300m in additional cash and property.
Mr Quinn proposed that much of the gap could be bridged if the orders involved in education were willing to sign over schools to the legal ownership of the state.
This was described as a compromise that would see the orders give what is perceived to be their fair share without eating into the funds they need to care for ageing members.
Asset reports supplied to the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act show the vast amount of educational assets held by these orders did not feature in redress offers made to the state.
Instead, the orders opted to establish separate charitable trusts and transfer the bulk of their school properties to these new companies.
A spokesman for the Sisters of Mercy said it would not comment while the engagement with the minister was ongoing.
In 2010 it made an additional redress offer of €127m, which included €20m in cash.
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, July 07, 2011
The Children of the 1950’s in Goldenbridge slaved at making rosary beads which the nun’s sold the money they made out of that bought the Property in Rathdrum. >How much did the sisters of mercy sell the property for?