Chapter 2 — Finance

Value of work done by the Order

A difficulty with the Christian Brothers’ submission is in the distinction between the charitable contributions of individual Brothers and the larger interests of the Congregation, including the funding of its operations.

In respect of the Reformatory at Daingean, run by the Oblate order, Mazars stated that the payments to the Province amounted to almost €50,000 over the period under review: A report prepared on behalf of the Oblate Order in May 2002 indicates that these payments to the Province and to the Order members were funded by farm sales, stipends and donations. An analysis of payments to the Province and to the Order members in the context of the surplus/deficit generated from the farm and income from donations and stipends indicates, however, that in most years such income sources, when related costs are taken into account, would not have supported the level of payments made to the Province and to the Order members and, at an overall level for the period from 1940 to 1969, payments to the Province and to the Order members would have exceeded these sources of income by an amount of approximately €25,111, i.e. farm income, donations, stipends and sundry sales together exceeded farm expenditure by just €35,395 and were not sufficient to cover payments to the Province... This would, therefore, imply that capitation grants were, in part, funding payments to the Province’19.

In response, the Oblate Order made a strong submission on the question of the value of the Order’s work in Daingean to the State. This was not part of their opening statement but it was addressed by them in their response to the Mazars’ report. They stated: For example, the full value of the work done by the priests and brothers of the Oblate order should be counted as a cost to the school, matched by a liability from the school to the Oblate order.

The economic consultants, Goodbody’s, engaged by the Oblates attempted to work out the cost of the work done by the religious against the value to them of their accommodation and living expenses. They stated: When a minimum value of the work done by the members of the order is recognised, and this value is reduced by maximum values for the value of the goods, services and cash provided by St Conleth’s to the Oblate order the accumulated loss increases to €113,947 [£96,268].

According to the accounts furnished by the Order, 10 percent of the total income received by the institution was paid to the Order by way of stipends or direct payment to the Province20. If the figure suggested by Goodbody’s for food and accommodation was added to that, a total of €251,000 was used by the Order out of the capitation grant, which represented approximately 1/3rd of all income21.

An important added factor is that Daingean accommodated a large number of retired priests who had little or no contact with the school. A former Resident Manager of the Order was asked about this at hearing. It was pointed out to him that of the five priests listed in Daingean, only one appeared to have direct involvement with the school, and he said in respect of the other four: They were there for different purposes. It would often give a choice of say confessor for a boy.

A former Resident Manager said that one priest was interested in arts and crafts and another in music and that they involved themselves in those activities.

Of the 19 Brothers, only six or seven appeared to be involved with the school and the former Resident Manager mentioned a number of Brothers who were retired and still living in the Community and still receiving stipends.

He confirmed that in addition to these stipends, a levy was paid to the Province to pay for the training of new members. You see every community was expected to make some contribution to the central fund because men had to be provided and trained and things like that and this was common enough.

He had a difficulty with this because he ceased paying this contribution in the 1960s when he became Manager:

Mazars observed: The Industrial and Reformatory Schooling system during the period under review did not provide for payment by the State, of salaries of those employed in the running of the institutions. The matter of salaries would not appear to be a matter which was raised by the Order at the time they ran the Reformatory in Daingean. Rather they appeared to accept the responsibility of managing the Reformatory and, in so doing, participated in the system as it prevailed at that time.22

The analysis by Goodbody’s was designed to show that the Order had not profited from the operation of Daingean Reformatory but it actually illustrated the lack of clarity around the ‘voluntary’ or ‘charitable’ nature of the work. Whilst it may be an interesting exercise to calculate the money that could have been paid to religious for the work done, the fact is this was not the understanding at the time. This school was a charitable venture undertaken by a religious Order in pursuance of its mission and was supported in that by the State.

In their response to the Mazars report, the Rosminians stated: Whilst the Rosminians had a certain desire for autonomy in the operation of their Schools, it was not for the sake of protection of property as such, it was to preserve independence in undertaking charitable works. This was the nature of the support by the religious which the State undertook. ....The religious were used because they could be relied upon to act on the basis of charity and because they were the largest supplier of social service/welfare in the Country. As they provided a service on trust, their claim to be struggling should have been taken more seriously.

This goes to the core of the matter – the Congregations were on trust but were not willing to reciprocate this trust by being transparent in their dealings with the State. There was no attempt to identify institutions that, because of their size or their lack of a farm or even the age profile of their pupils, would have been genuinely struggling to make ends meet. The Resident Managers’ Association, dominated as it was by Managers from the large senior boys’ schools, had no real interest in disclosing how they spent the capitation and therefore smaller schools that had a genuine case were not heard.

In the module on Goldenbridge, Sr Xaveria stated that prior to the appointment of Sr Bernadine in 1943, the capitation grant was paid to the convent and an allowance was then given to the Sisters who were engaged in the running of the school. Although that practice stopped, the few financial accounts that survived showed significant payments to Carysfort Mother House and to the reverend mother: The accounts of Carysfort Mother House indicate payments received between 1939 and 1954 on a monthly basis totalling between approximately €5000 and €9000 per annum described as ‘National Education Goldenbridge’. The Carysfort accounts indicate payments totalling between approximately €1000 and €5000 per annum to the Goldenbridge Convent and Goldenbridge school expenses. The source of the income is not clear nor is the extent to which the payments related to wages. It is also not clear how much of this income, or expenditure, relates to the industrial school, rather than the adjacent national school.23