Schools, charities lose out over cost of abuse redress

Sunday December 4th 2005

JIM CUSACK

THE abuse scandals are rattling the finances of the Catholic Church, forcing it to sell off schools, community centres and playing fields around the country.

And while some of the better-off areas of Dublin's southside are feeling the pinch, charitable organisations are also being hit.

The church in Dun Laoghaire had three non-fee paying secondary schools, as well as a variety of social and charitable buildings and grounds, 15 years ago.

Within the next few years, the last of the non-fee paying schools will close, along with an orphanage, two community centres, church buildings and a rugby pitch at the one remaining fee-paying boys' school.

In almost every instance, the properties used for education will be converted into high-density, high-cost apartments and houses.

The Dublin Archdiocese which owns the parish properties, and two religious orders which own the schools, are all signed up to the Redress Board payment scheme. This drive to raise compensation for clerical abuse, however, is having a huge impact on Dun Laoghaire.

With the development of up to 1,800 houses and apartments on the town's golf course, it is likely that more than 3,000 new housing units - mostly apartments - are planned or already underway. It is the biggest development since the Victorian town was laid out and built between the 1830s and 1870s.

The first major project in the redevelopment started well before the Redress issue arose, with the sale of the Dominican girls school in Lower George's Street. The school is replaced by Bloomfields Shopping Centre.

The Christian Brothers' school in Eblana Place was also shut before the allegations of abuse. The buildings still stand, but they are to be developed as an apartments and offices complex.

Next to go is the Presentation College in Glasthule. The last student term will begin next year, after which it will be presumably, sold for development. In all, the town has lost around 2,000 non-fee paying school places.

With residential land prices in Dun Laoghaire among the highest in the country, there is little prospect of there being anything other than residential development on these sites.

Even the fee-paying schools are being affected.

CBC Monkstown is losing one of its three rugby pitches, as part of a deal between the Christian Brothers and the council.

The property will be sold off to help fund the order's liability to the Redress Fund, to compensate for sexually abused children. The one-acre pitch is expected to fetch at least ?12m, and a small part of this will go towards the badly needed renovation of the school.

Along with schools, a number of charity-owned properties are also going under the hammer.

Last week, St Brendan's Community Centre in Glasthule was sold by the St Vincent de Paul charity.

Local PD councillor and headmistress of the nearby Harold National School, Mary Mitchell O'Connor, said she was "outraged" that sporting and leisure activities organised for teenagers have had to be cancelled.

"This is surely a sign of the times that the Society of St Vincent de Paul will cash in and sell a hall that was entrusted to them in the past." she said.

But Andy Doug, a director of the St Vincent de Paul - which last week reported spending ?33m on emergency relief in Ireland in 2004 - said the hall had not been used for the past five years.

Further up Hudson Road from St Brendan's, on Tivoli Road, the Cottage Orphanage which for well over 100 years provided care and accommodation for homeless children and families is up for sale. The deadline for sale by tender closed at noon on Friday. A "guide" price of ?6m had been given and the sale price probably exceeded this.

The parish of St Michael's in Dun Laoghaire has also been selling property.

? Irish Independent