One of the first major decisions to be made by the new Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, will be the appointment of an auxiliary bishop to replace Bishop Jim Moriarty, who was transferred from Dublin to the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin in 2002.
Archbishop Martin is also expected to move soon to resolve the situation whereby another of Dublin's auxiliary bishops, Most Rev Eamonn Walsh, has also been acting as apostolic administrator to Ferns diocese since the resignation of Bishop Brendan Comiskey in April 2002.
And the new archbishop will decide on the sale of church property at Clonliffe College, which was discontinued as a seminary in 2000. There has been considerable speculation about the future of Clonliffe, particularly in the context of developments at Croke Park in recent years.
At no time has it been suggested that diocesan financial pressures arising from compensation claims by abuse victims made it imperative that a sale of Clonliffe property, or of other diocesan assets, was needed. Figures published by the archdiocese indicated its finances were in the black with a closing balance of €19.8 million for the year ended June 2003.