How religious orders are sitting on assets worth hundreds of millions of euro

In early September a group of residents in south Dublin succeeded in a High Court challenge to plans for a housing development at Deansgrange.
The case centred on the way An Bord Pleanála had granted approval in December 2021 for almost 300 housing units.
But the story of the Deansgrange lands also provided insight into the value of assets owned by religious congregations – an issue that has returned to the fore following the report of the scoping inquiry on abuse in schools.
The Government plans to establish a Commission of Investigation after the scoping inquiry uncovered thousands of cases where children were allegedly sexually abused in religious-run schools.
The inquiry report contained almost 2,400 allegations of sexual abuse dating from the 1960s to the 1990s at 308 schools run by religious orders across Ireland. The 700-page report said the claims were made against 884 alleged abusers in day and boarding schools run by 42 religious orders.
Within Government there are concerns about a potential €5 billion cost of providing compensation to those affected.
The Deansgrange lands were owned by the Christian Brothers and had been used as playing fields by students at the adjoining Clonkeen College.
Michael Brennan is a former teacher and deputy principal at Clonkeen College. As a PE teacher, he was very familiar with the field that was used for playing soccer and Gaelic games.
He told The Irish Times that in 2017 the school was informed by the Christian Brothers that two thirds of the land was to be sold.
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He said he never saw any documentation but at the time it was reported that the sale of the 7.5 acres would generate about €18 million.
There was a proposal that the school would receive about €1.3 million, which would be used to fund an all-weather pitch as well as for other purposes.
The sale of the lands in Deansgrange is just one of a number of examples in recent years of properties owned by religious congregations being bought for large sums by developers.
In late 2020 it emerged that housebuilder Lioncor had paid about €16 million for a site immediately adjoining Blackrock College in Dublin. The Irish Times reported at the time that the proceeds would go to the Spiritan congregation, which has responsibility for the school.
The scoping inquiry report once again put a focus on how much religious congregations should provide towards the cost of compensating those who suffered abuse in institutions that they ran.
Over the last 25 years, as the Irish State acknowledged the scale of violence and abuse that had taken place in schools and institutions, successive governments have had varying degrees of success in securing contributions.
On two occasions, governments have sought to establish the level of assets held by religious congregations.
In November 2009 a three-person panel looked at 18 congregations and found they had assets valued at about €3.47 billion. However, not all of these were liquid assets.
The panel warned that for many congregations millions of euro listed as assets were considered “restricted” in that they had to be used for specific charitable purposes or in some cases for missionary work abroad. Some properties were also considered to be “in use” as educational or healthcare facilities, for example.
Congregations argued that with numbers declining and members ageing, funding also needed to be earmarked to pay for their living, welfare and future healthcare costs. Some said they had personnel working abroad who were likely to return to Ireland in retirement.
Last year Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman commissioned consultants EY to look at the assets of congregations linked to the operation of mother and baby homes.
These inquiries commissioned by the Government over the years only covered a limited number of congregations and did not provide a comprehensive look at the financial picture of the State’s 26 dioceses and more than 160 orders and other Catholic organisations that have provided educational, health and other services over decades.
Any Government assessment of the resources of congregations referenced in the scoping inquiry into abuse in schools would be a far bigger exercise than those undertaken to date.
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However, many congregations have charitable status and the Charities Regulator has published more recent financial information about the assets held by those congregations. Not all the figures are for the same year and they do not represent full accounts.
Figures compiled by the Charities Regulator says that the Congregation of the Holy Spirit or Spiritans, the religious order that runs Blackrock College in Dublin and Rockwell College in Co Tipperary, had €2.38 million in cash and €171 million in other assets last year. When liabilities were deducted, the congregation had net assets of €157.43 million.
The Congregation of Christian Brothers European Province in December 2022 had €1.773 million in cash and other assets of €59.89 million. Its net assets, after liabilities, were €54.859 million.
The Edmund Rice Schools Trust, which now owns many of the schools run in the past by the Christian Brothers, had fixed assets of €132.972 million.
The Brothers of Charity Service Ireland had in December 2022 €25.85 million in cash and €62.28 million in assets. When total liabilities of €54.2 million were taken into account, the organisation had net assets of €33.9 million.
The figures show that the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart had in December 2021 more than €51 million in cash. When liabilities were deducted, the congregation had net assets of nearly €60 million.
The De La Salle Brothers had in December 2022 more than €8 million in cash and €49.5 million in other assets. The order’s net assets were €57.445 million.
More detailed, if dated, financial figures are set out by the 2009 Government-appointed panel.
At the time it said the Sisters of Mercy had land, buildings, financial and other assets worth €1.221 billion.
As well as the property, it said the order owned 13 other bodies, most of them incorporated, which in turn held other assets including the Mater, Temple Street, and the National Orthopaedic hospitals in Dublin and the Mercy University Hospital in Cork, which were collectively valued at €645 million.
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The panel reported that the Christian Brothers had land, buildings, financial and other assets to the value of €332.4 million.
The report said that “in addition … in 2008 the congregation transferred school property with an attributed value of €430 million to the Edmund Rice Schools Trust Ltd”.
This is a company “established by the congregation to continue the ethos of the congregation and its founder in relation to the provision of Catholic education in Ireland”.
The Christian Brothers were not the only organisation to establish trusts.
“Educational trust companies were created in the context of steadily declining religious vocations; from 1999 religious orders began to set up trusteeships to ensure that the religious ethos of their schools would be protected in the future,” the scoping inquiry report said.
“These trusts were in the form of companies, with the directors being a number of lay Catholics who would carry out the patron’s functions. Boards of management would then report to these companies.”
In 2007, five religious congregations – the Daughters of Charity, the Presentation Sisters, the Mercy Sisters, the Sisters of the Christian Retreat and the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart – entered into a new joint trusteeship named Ceist.
The Charities Regulator’s figures show that in December 2022 Ceist had net assets of just over €3.1 million but liabilities that were slightly higher, leaving it with net liabilities of €2,772.
The 2009 panel said that the Sisters of Mercy planned at the time to transfer most of its secondary schools – with a value in 2007 of €412 million – to the trust.
As Minister for Health in 2017, Simon Harris, now Taoiseach, took a strong line, insisting on religious orders meeting some of the cost of compensating victims. He said there was “significant merit” in looking at seizing hospital and school lands.
On Thursday Mr Harris did not rule out the compulsory purchase of assets held by religious congregations when he was asked about the subject in an interview on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
In Deansgrange, Mr Brennan said no one should deny full compensation or redress to those who, as children, suffered egregious abuse in schools run by religious orders.
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However, he said that “selling current school playing fields, essential educational resources for schoolchildren, should be the very last resort for religious orders to fulfil their redress obligations to abuse victims”.
“In many cases, school playing fields have been developed, extended and had considerable value added to them, with the support, input, expertise, funding and hard work of school staff, parents, past pupils and neighbours over many years, all with a view to providing the best possible learning environment for schoolchildren,” he said.
“If they are sold for development, they are lost forever.”
The State is facing a shortfall of about €235 million on the amount originally offered by religious congregations to offset the cost of compensating victims of abuse.
Religious congregations agreed to provide €128 million in 2002 in return for an indemnity. Of this, €125 million has been contributed.
Following the Ryan report on child abuse in 2009, the congregations offered additional contributions, including the transfer of cash and property, to a total value of €352.6 million.
“However, a number of the elements of these offers were not accepted by the Government, while the values of the properties transferred to the State have in general been far lower than those assigned to the properties by the congregations in 2009,” the scoping inquiry into abuse in the schools said.
“In addition, the Christian Brothers’ offer of school playing fields and associated lands valued at €127 million, which was at one point withdrawn by the congregation, has not yet been completed and, on the basis that the proceeds of any sale of those lands would be split on a 50/50 basis between the State and the Edmund Rice Schools Trust, is unlikely to achieve the value assigned to it by the congregation.”
In respect of the offers made in 2009, it said that about €120.3 million of the €352.6 million contribution had been received by the State to date.
“This includes cash contributions of €111.53 million from congregations. Under the 2009 arrangement, 18 properties were accepted by the State for transfer and to date 17 of the transfers are completed, to the value of €8.570 million,” the scoping inquiry report said.
The final property scheduled to be transferred to the State was the National Rehabilitation Hospital in south Dublin.
The Department of Education said there had been “complexities” about this but arrangements were now being finalised for the facility to be transferred to the HSE.
The Department of Education said that under the Residential Institutions Redress Board scheme from 2002, about 15,600 awards had been made at a cost of approximately €971 million.
The Department of Children said on several occasions, the relevant religious congregations had been asked to make a financial contribution to the “restorative justice” ex gratia scheme for those who spent time in Magdalene laundries.
“All declined to do so. However, they are co-operating fully in making records available to the applicants and in verifying details for the department,” the department said.
Under the Magdalene scheme, a total of €33.4 million in lump sum awards had been paid to 832 applicants.
It is estimated that a redress scheme for mother and baby home survivors will cost about €800 million.
In August the department said the process of negotiations with religious congregations about possible contributions was continuing and signalled that no final offer had been put on the table at that point.