The Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) said yesterday that its congregations were "urgently examining" models for auditing the properties they use for the delivery of social services, education and healthcare to make the details public.
On Monday, Father Seán Healy, the director of CORI's justice commission, said it would be beneficial if the 18 congregations that have signed indemnity deals with the State published details of their assets.
The secretary general of CORI, Father Michael Drennan, said in a short statement that the congregations' preparations for audits were in preparation for planned changes in charity law. He was not available to expand on his statement.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, which is overseeing the introduction of new laws relating to charities, said work was at a very early stage, and it was too early to say whether registered charities would be obliged to publish details of their assets.
The Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy are two of the largest congregations in the Republic in terms of assets.
The Christian Brothers own a huge amount of property with its network of schools.
The Sisters of Mercy also have many properties through involvement in schools.
The order was also involved in hospitals and other services, again with very significant assets.
Two years ago, the RTÉ programme Prime Time had a valuer conduct a survey of known Christian Brother properties in the Republic.
An estimated value of €500 million was arrived at.
The Sisters of Mercy, as well as owning schools, owns valuable properties such as the Mater Hospital site on Eccles Street, Dublin.
Both orders have had a large number of allegations made against their members arising from their involvement in the running of children's homes, though an allegation against the Sisters of Mercy has never been accepted or proven in court.
As registered charities, the orders, though hugely wealthy, do not have to file accounts.
The Sisters of Mercy has a number of companies which hold properties for it in trust.
Three of these companies, Sisters of Mercy SCP Ltd, Mercy Trust SCP Ltd and The McAuley Trust SCP, list associated properties in their accounts.
The 45 properties include ordinary family houses, plots of land and convents.
The filings also reveal that unspecified investments are handled for the order by Davy Stockbrokers.
Nothing is known about the amount of money handled annually by the various congregations apart from the few land deals involving congregations in recent years which attracted publicity.
The Christian Brothers have an Irish-registered company, Richmond Newstreet, which was set up in 1994 "to provide for a changing and developing role for the congregational leadership in its international mission", according to Brother Edmund Garvey, congregation leader of the Irish Christian Brothers and a director of the company.
There is little financial information on file for the company, which has charitable status, though it did take out five mortgages in 1997 for a total of $4.5 million.
The funds were for a number of Christian Brothers congregations, and filings indicate the mortgages have since been satisfied.
Catholic congregations are also involved in the provision of services to drug addicts, prostitutes, the homeless and the ill.
The orders that have signed the indemnity deal with the State are: Sisters of Mercy; Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul; Christian Brothers; Good Shepherd Sisters; Presentation Brothers; Rosminians; Oblates of Mary Immaculate; Hospitaller Order of St John of God; Sisters of Charity; Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge; Sisters of St Clare; Institute of St Louis; Presentation Sisters; De La Salle Brothers; Dominicans; Daughters of the Heart of Mary; Brothers of Charity; Sisters of Nazareth.
