Chapter 2 — Finance

Adequacy of funding

In relation to Newtownforbes, which was a relatively small school with a maximum of 145 children and often with numbers that fell well below that, the Sisters simply asserted: The financial records of Newtownforbes have been made available to the Commission and they indicate that the finances of the industrial school operated within a range of plus or minus 5% of the capitation budget.

The Sisters of Charity ran two schools that were the subjects of detailed analysis by the Investigation Committee. The Sisters appeared to have a clearer idea of what the capitation grant was intended to cover than other Congregations. In their submission on St Joseph’s Kilkenny they stated: It appears that in the earlier years there was no Capital funding provided by the Department for Capital development.

The submission continued: Funding was provided from central funds by the Superior General in Dublin.

The Sisters quoted a letter from the Department of Education to the Department of Health dated 8th May 1978: The provision of buildings was the orders’ contribution...the capitation grant was regarded as containing an element in respect of the maintenance of buildings.

The lack of financial support did not deter the Sisters from large-scale capital developments throughout the 1950s and 1960s, which were largely funded through fund-raising activities and through contributions from the Convent. Much of this development consisted of the purchase of property for the development of group homes and these houses remained the property of the Congregation.

In general, all the opening statements that referred to finance submitted that there was a significant lack of funding by the State and this impacted upon the level of care for the children and specifically in the provision of material necessities and comforts.

There were, however, questions that remained unanswered. There were indications from documents, particularly the Visitation Reports of the Christian Brothers, that the financial position of some schools was good with substantial surpluses in some cases. There was also documentation from the Department of Finance that indicated scepticism about the pleas for funding supported by the Department of Education.

On the other hand, Inspection Reports contained references to children being poorly fed and poorly clothed and complainants were consistent in their allegations about inadequate food, clothing and accommodation in most of the institutions investigated.

The documentation furnished by the Christian Brothers gave rise to questions on the issue of funding. In fairness it must be emphasised that the Christian Brothers kept better records than other Congregations and also operated a system of internal inspection which revealed details that were not disclosed in other Congregations’ discoveries. For example, the Visitation Reports for Artane contained the following references to finance: (1)In 1934, the Visitor noted ‘The financial condition of this House is strong’. He also recorded: ‘In 1934 the deduction from the school income for the services of the Brothers was £3,920’. The Brothers made a contribution of £2,000 towards the cost of building St Joseph’s Missionary College in Marino. (2)In 1937, the income for Artane was £29,000 and the expenditure was £31,000. There was a sum of £10,000 in the bank left ‘for the building of new schools’ and there were credit balances in both the Brothers and school accounts. The Superior gave a loan of £6,000 towards the building of the noviciate as well as a subscription of £1,000. Visitation dues and subscriptions towards central funds totalled £1,200. (3)In 1938 a farm of 49 acres was purchased by the school for £1,600. (4)In 1939 the visitation report stated ‘the financial state of the school and house is sound’. At that point there was a total expenditure of £33,600 and the total income of £28,700 but the Visitation Report noted that much of the deficit was capital expenditure. The salaries to the Brothers amounted to £2,260 or £133 per Brother which would have been as much as a national school teacher at that time5. The total number of employees amounted to 60 and their salaries for the year totalled £9,000 which averaged out to about £132 per employee per year. (5)1940 saw the income for the school total £32,500 and £3,300 had to be drawn from the reserve fund to meet the current expenses ‘owing to the laying in of large stocks’. The farm expenses in that year were recorded as being £3,460. The Visitation Report stated: ‘during the past 6 years Artane has invested in the building fund £16,500’. (6)The 1942 Visitation Report was extremely optimistic about the financial position of the Institution, it stated: The financial position is remarkably strong. The community account has a credit at the bank of £6,990 and the school account has a credit of £3,568. The total receipts of the establishment last year amounted to £32,240 and the expenditure was £29,733. The amount advanced from the funds as stipends for the community was £4,280. The Community income from all sources was £6,001. All the trades with the exception of that of the tin-smiths showed a profit. There was a net profit on the farm of £1,774 and on the mill and bakery of £2,346. The house-to-house collection made in the city and suburbs came in at about £500 annually and the Superior suggested that this collection be discontinued. £500 was a substantial sum in 1942 and it was a indication of a level of comfort with the funding that it was considered that it could be dispensed with. (7)In 1943, the Visitation Report stated: ‘During 1943, the school bought 32 acres of land at Belcamp for £2,625’. (8)In 1944 the net amount in the building fund for the institution was almost £20,000. In 1945 this figure had increased to a net balance in the building fund of £29,500. (9)In 1951 the Visitation Report stated that, ‘the financial condition of Artane is not too sound and it does not appear to be improving’. The excess expenditure over income in the school was £8,306 between the years 1949 and 1951. This was due to capital expenditure on a sanitary block and on a play hall and it still left a credit balance in the building fund of £6,728. (10)The Visitation Report of 1954 recorded that the financial position for Artane at the end of 1953 was fairly satisfactory. The school account showed a surplus income of £974 and the house account surplus was almost £2,000. The credit balance at the end of 1953 was nearly £3,000 higher than that at the end of 1952. (11)The Visitation Report for 1955 stated : The Financial position of this establishment is very satisfactory at the present time.....On both accounts there was a Credit Balance at the end of the year of £36,203, to carry on to the 1955 accounts. There is a sum of £30,000 invested in the Building Fund and, strange to say, taking this investment into account, there is due to the Building Fund a sum of £8800. This figure appears to have been the repayment to the fund of money advanced for the sanitation block and other capital expenses and was repaid the following year: ‘There is no debt on the establishment. The total credit to the Community in the Provincial fund is now £36,000.’ (12)A comprehensive survey of the financial position of Artane was conducted in the Visitation Report of 1957 and 1958. By that time the number of boys had decreased significantly to 526 and it was seen that the staff of 68 to look after this number of boys was completely out of proportion: The wages bill for the 40 employees amounted to over £13,000 per annum which would be 25% approximately of the grants received from the industrial schools branch and the various county councils. If £300 per Brother were allowed it would mean that almost 45% of the grants given for the support of the boys would go in upkeep for the staff. In addition there were up to 168 boys employed without payment in various activities. The Visitation Report recommended that it was time to set up some sort of a committee of experienced Brothers to examine the whole situation. The Visitor did not think that Artane should be closed down: ‘it is the only school of its kind in the whole of Leinster’. In spite of the reduced grants and the rather wasteful manner in which the place is run at the time of visitation, Artane had £45,000 in the building fund and approximately £17,000 in the bank. The latter large figure was caused by the arrival shortly before hand of the major grants. (13)In 1962 the Visitor remarked: even though the numbers have fallen considerably your financial position is still strong. Most of the departments of Artane are self supporting but from the annual accounts it would seem that the farm could pay much better. With 300 of the best land of North County Dublin there should be a very substantial return for the year. (14)After 1962, sales of land increased the credit balances in the house accounts and made it difficult to establish what had derived from the school and what had derived from sales.

What emerged from these references was that Artane was a large contributor to the Christian Brother’s Congregation in Ireland. The Visitation Reports indicate that most of the money for these contributions came from the house accounts that were funded almost exclusively by salaries paid to Brothers. Given that Brothers had almost no living expenses because these were covered by the school, the money paid in salary went in large part to the development of the Congregation. There was clearly a greater surplus of funds during periods of high occupancy in the 1940s and into the 1950s.

The school appeared to have adequate funds to function and to allow for substantial payments to the Congregation.

Other Christian Brothers’ institutions had similar references in their Visitation Reports.

In Glin, the Visitor referred to the purchase by the school of farm land in 1938 and stated: The finances of the Establishment were able to meet this outlay on land which is necessary for the production of food for the School and training for the boys.

In 1941, the Visitor remarked: Financially the Institution is sound, and if the numbers keep up to the present average all will be well.

The Reports show a credit balance for most of the 1950s in Glin but, as in Artane, falling numbers made the situation more difficult going in to the 1960s. A figure of £7,000 was recorded in the building fund for most of the 1950s and 1960s.