Chapter 2 — Finance

The request for accounts in 1947

In early 1947 the Resident Managers’ Association made a further application for an increase of 5/- per week in the combined payments for maintenance by the State and local authorities. The rate of the capitation grant at the time for the State was 7/- for Industrial Schools and 9/6 for Reformatory Schools, with the local authorities paying 8/- to the Industrial Schools and a rate not exceeding 9/6 and not less than 8/6 for the Reformatories.

The Department replied: The Minister is prepared to have a careful examination made of the application received from the Managers’ Association and to reconsider the present grant if he is satisfied that a sufficiently strong case can be made to convince the Government and the local authorities that these grants are inadequate to meet the present expenses of the schools. He has, accordingly, directed me to say that in order to have the fullest consideration given to the matter it will be necessary (this word is deleted and changed to ‘desirable’) for each Certified School to furnish detailed statements of its income and expenditure for the year ending 31st March 1947. If it is not practicable to have the statements duly certified by an auditor they should be signed and certified by the School Manager.

The Department then put in a reminder about the failed attempt two years previously to get such accounts: In this connection I am to state that when similar statements were asked for in 1945 by the Minister through the Association of General Managers in regard to a previous application for an increase in the capitation rate for maintenance grants, only 21 out of a possible 53 furnished statements, and this factor rendered it difficult for the Minister to give favourable consideration to the application for increase. I am accordingly to request you to arrange to submit for the consideration of the Minister a statement of the financial position of school in respect of the twelve months period ending 31st March 1947.

The Department then spelled out the kind of information wanted: The statement of the financial position of your school for the period mentioned (1/4/1946 to 31/3/1947) should show in detail the items of expenditure appropriate to your industrial school only under the various heads viz. food, clothing, footwear, fuel, medical expenses, dental treatment, salaries and wages, etc.

It requested that the average yearly cost for these items ‘should be carefully calculated and shown in a separate document accompanying the statement’. The document added: Where the cost of remuneration or maintenance of Religious members of the staff is part of the expenditure, any salary or other grant received by these members as Nat. Ins. Or any capitation grants paid to the school as a national school should be included as part of the school income.

All schools did respond although not in the detail requested. Thirty seven reported a deficit per head per week for each child in the institution, and 10 institutions reported substantial debts or overdrafts. Two schools were noted as not having given particulars of the income from the farm. However, in the absence of the detailed information sought no increase was granted.

The request for accounts in 1951

The pressure on the Congregations to provide detailed accounts was increased in 1951 when it was proposed to set up an interdepartmental committee with representatives from the Departments of Education, Finance and Social Welfare to inquire into the economic running of the schools. In the meantime, a significant increase of 5/- per week was granted. There was immediate opposition from the Resident Managers’ Association to the inquiry. The minutes of a special meeting of the Christian Brothers’ Resident Managers to discuss the move, held on 14th February 1951, noted: It was decided after discussion that the offer of an increase of 5/- per head, per week should be accepted under protest as to its inadequacy. It was agreed that the proposal of a special inspection by a Board of Inspectors from each of the Departments of Education, Finance and Social Welfare should be treated with extreme caution. It was not quite clear from the Department’s letter as to what was the function of this Inspection Board would be. It was feared that this might be an attempt to infringe upon the established rights of the Manager. It was obvious that the Department was desirous of an opportunity of examining the Financial Accounts of the institutions. After discussing the various difficulties that might arise it was decided that at the General Meeting the Brothers should neither accept or reject the proposal but should press that a further letter be sent to the Department asking that their Association should be supplied, in writing, under definite headings, with what the proposed inspection is going to entail and what its powers would be.

The Resident Managers were reassured that the Board of Inspectors was only going to establish the right level of funding for the schools. The terms of reference were to inquire into the conditions and circumstances of the Industrial and Reformatory Schools under the control of the Department of Education and to make recommendations as to how they might be most efficiently and most economically conducted.

The Resident Managers refused, however, to consent to the inspection as ‘the terms of reference to the inquiry were too wide, and include subjects which they do not consider relevant to the question at issue’. On 6th April 1951 the Secretary of the Association wrote to the Minister: I have been directed by the Association to inform you that the members are strongly of the opinion that no useful purpose would be served by the holding of such an inquiry.

Specifically they objected to the involvement of the Departments of Finance and Social Welfare, believing that it constituted an attempt to interfere with the way in which the schools were run. The Minister, Richard Mulcahy, tried to allay their fears, but the project was dropped in the face of continued strong opposition. A further increase of 6/- per week followed in 1952.

The request for accounts in 1954

When a further application for additional money was made in 1954, the Department tried again to get each school to submit accounts. In a letter to every Resident Manager the Minister again requested that each certified school should furnish detailed statements of its income and expenditure for each of the years ended 31st December 1951, 1952, and 1953 together with ‘particulars of improvements carried out in those years and of further improvements contemplated’. As well as demanding details about expenditure on food, clothing etc it asked for details about the farm or garden, if the school had one. It stated, ‘the gross value of the food supplied to the school and the proceeds of any sales should be shown in the statement as well as the working total expenses. The value of the food should be calculated at market prices current at the time of supply’. It also asked for the statement to include gross income from trades and industrial activities.

Unusually it also asked the Managers to furnish ‘a statement showing how far the requirements and suggestions of the Circular of the 19th March, 1952 have been complied with’. This circular, following the increase in the grant that year, asked for ‘all round improvements in the matter of diet, clothing and facilities for indoor and outdoor recreation’. The Department asked specifically for ‘Statements of Accounts (Receipts and Expenditure) for calendar years 1951, 1952 and 1953 showing in particular the amounts spent on food and clothing for those years’ and for statements ‘indicating improvements to accommodation e.g. new recreation hall, new domestic economy room etc.

The Department, in short, was asking for proof that the extra money had been used in the way intended. The letter ended with a reassurance that the Department had no hidden motive for asking for such accounts: I desire to say that the information now asked for is not in the nature of an audit, or strict investigation, of the accounts of any school. It is required solely to enable the Minister to form a correct opinion of the actual financial circumstances of the various schools so that he may be in a position to consider the application made for an increase in the rates of capitation grants for maintenance.

Accounts were received from just nine schools. They were Drogheda, Loughrea, Upton, St Anne’s Kilmacud, Pembroke Alms Industrial School, New Ross, Waterford, Westport and Clonakilty.

On 18th May 1955 the Resident Managers’ Association submitted accounts for ‘an unknown number of schools’. There was no record on file requesting these accounts. They were returned to the Association because ‘the Department was unwilling to accept these accounts in the format presented’. The Association then submitted accounts for 22 Industrial Schools. The Department no longer holds copies of these accounts and has no record of the 22 schools involved.