THE Catholic hierarchy will have to find up to €50m over the next 10 years to compensate sex abuse victims, pay for their counselling services and fund a revamped and expanded child protection service, the Irish Independent has learned.

The news comes as a €10m trust set up by the bishops using insurance funds is expected to run out within the next 12 months because of abuse payouts.

The result is that each of the 26 dioceses in the country will have to draw increasingly on their own resources to maintain the fund.

How they do this will be left up to each bishop, but the sale of property is certain to be one source of funds while there could also be special collections from churchgoers.

Already the Diocese of Killaloe has drawn on money raised by the sale of land around the bishop's house to make a contribution in the region of €40,000 to the trust.

The Irish Independent has also learned that the Dublin diocese has now paid out €4.3m to 47 victims, including legal costs. This is up from 38 payouts at a cost of €3.5 million as at last May.

Fund-raising options available to the Dublin diocese include the sale of land around the now defunct seminary of Clonliffe College. The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, confirmed in April that this was a possibility.

The fund established by the bishops to help meet the costs of the clerical sex abuse scandals is called the Stewardship Trust. It was set up in 1996 with an initial sum of €4.3m paid in by their insurer, Church & General. A second amount of €6.3m was paid into it by the company in 1999.

These sums were agreed after protracted negotiations between the bishops and Church & General. The trust is run by the country's four Archbishops.

The fund has now been severely depleted following big payouts in dioceses such as Ferns. Last month, the acting Bishop of the Ferns diocese, Dr Eamonn Walsh, revealed that to date 17 victims have been paid €2.8m, including costs. He said that 90pc of this had come from the trust.

This week the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, revealed that two victims in his diocese had been paid €265,000 and that €252,000 had come from the special fund.

The Dublin Archdiocese has not revealed how much of its €4.3m payout has come from the trust, but if it is in line with other dioceses it is likely to be in the region of €3.8m.

The bishops' press office in Maynooth was not able to say how much remains in the account. A spokesman said: "The Catholic Communications Office does not have that information."

However, the Irish Independent has been informed that abuse claims currently before the bishops will likely deplete funds entirely by the end of next year.

This has become an active concern for the Bishops' Conference, which meets every quarter in Maynooth. With insurance monies fast running out, dioceses will be asked to dig deeper into their own pockets to replenish the fund.

One estimate before the bishops is that over the next 10 years, the Stewardship Trust may have to receive €50m to meet the cost of compensation, the counselling services available both to victims and their abusers, as well as paying for the child protection service of the bishops, which is soon to be expanded.

Bishop Joe Duffy of Clogher diocese emphasised that in reality, the various dioceses do not yet know what their liabilities arising from abuse cases will be.   He also confirmed that Clogher is already contributing to the Stewardship Trust.

However, he stressed: "These are for counselling services only. If any of it is to go for compensation I would want to know."   He also said that his own diocese has not yet drawn on the trust to pay any victims.

Ferns has already warned that its own funds are "almost exhausted" as a result of abuse claims and assets such as land and property could be sold off.

Future bankruptcies of dioceses, as has happened already in the United States, cannot be ruled out, although at this stage it is unlikely that parish property will be affected as such property belongs to the parish, strictly speaking, and not to the diocese.

David Quinn
Religious Affairs Correspondent - Irish Independent

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