NO MONEY contributed by Dublin Catholics for the support of their priests has been used for administrative purposes in the diocese or for upgrading work on the Archbishop’s House, the diocese has said.
It has also denied that great expense has been incurred in upgrading Archbishop’s House or that a huge bureaucracy has been created by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin since he became Archbishop of Dublin in 2004, following criticism from some priests. The diocese was responding to questions posed by Dublin priests, as raised with The Irish Times, since it was announced last month that the diocese would in future contribute just €18,400 of the €30,000 annual income of retired priests.
Up to then the diocese paid the amount in full. A spokeswoman for the diocese supplied details of the Archbishop’s absences from Dublin over recent months.
Due to changes introduced to PRSI for the self-employed in 1988 many priests now retiring, or who retired over the past 12-18 months, are entitled to a full contributory State pension of €11,600.
In that context the diocese decided it would in future contribute just the difference between the contributory State pension and the current total income of €30,000. In 2006/7 Dublin’s Catholics contributed €19.2 million for the support of their priests, an increase of €1 million on the 2005/6 figure. Figures for 2007/8 are not yet available.
The spokeswoman for the diocese said last night that “none of this money has been used for administration nor are there any plans to do so.’’
She also disclosed that “approximately €500,000’’ had been spent on upgrading office facilities at Archbishop’s House since 2004, where Archbishop Martin lived in two rooms, “a bedroom and a study”.
Central administrative and service staff had increased by seven since 2004, including a new human resources department with a staff of four. Altogether services there consisted of 13 offices, employing 65 full- and part-time staff. Staff salaries cost in the region of €3 million, she said.
Some priests who had senior posts in administration had been replaced by lay people. The bulk of salaries there was funded by Share collections, representing 40 per cent of the Share income. Share accounts are published annually.
Since the beginning of August Archbishop Martin has attended the Synod of Bishops in Rome, for three weeks in October, where he had been nominated to represent the Irish Bishops Conference.
His presence at the Synod “does not consist of canonical absence from the diocese,” she said.
He accompanied the Dublin diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes for five days in September and, as vice-president of the Commission of the Episcopal Conferences of the EU, he attended four days of meetings in that role.
He also attended six days of meetings in his role as co-moderator of the joint working group for relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches and he attended a two-day conference in Istanbul, in a personal capacity. Since August he had also taken 15 days of his annual leave, she said.
