THE 18 religious congregations party to the 2002 redress agreement with the State estimate that in the five years prior to 2000 they contributed €80.1 million to Ireland’s social economy.
In preparation for negotiations on the redress agreement, which began in late 2000, the congregations prepared an inventory of properties relinquished between 1995 and 2000.
This inventory, seen by The Irish Times, estimates that, due to downsizing of the congregations following a sharp decline in vocations, the religious groups had already handed over properties that they were no longer using to what they call "the social economy".
Such contributions, estimated at some €80 million, were separate from any obligations later placed on the congregations following the redress agreement.
The congregations estimate that contributions in property and services to education in the State in those five years totalled €47.017 million, while the value of property donated at lower than its market value for the provision of social and affordable housing over that period came to €21.74 million.
The value of property donated or given at lower than its market value for the provision of services to the mentally handicapped or for those in psychiatric care over the five-year period came to €1.6 million, while contributions to community development and social economy came to €7.226 million.
In addition, €2.9 million was spent in counselling services.
In the five-year period between 1999 and 2004, a further €11.87 million was spent on counselling at home and abroad, as well as on the Faoiseamh helpline for residents of institutions managed by the 18 congregations. Meanwhile, Cori’s former president and secretary general, Sr Elizabeth Maxwell, who took part in those redress agreement negotiations with the State, has said she was “surprised” last week at the intervention of bishops, including Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady, in the controversy over the 2002 redress agreement.
Last Sunday week Fr Tim Bartless, assistant to the cardinal, said on BBC Northern Ireland's Sunday Sequenceprogramme that the congregations should revisit that deal.
He was supported that day by Bishop of Down and Connor Noel Treanor.
The following day Cardinal Brady, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin and Bishop of Killaloe Willie Walsh, expressed similar views.
Sr Maxwell told The Irish Timesthat the bishops had not been in contact with the 18 relevant congregations or Cori in advance of making their views known.
It was also the case that the bishops were then already scheduled to meet Cori and the IMU (the Irish Missionary Union) that Monday evening on child protection issues.
She clarified that the first meeting in those redress negotiations with the State took place in the attorney general’s office, with the later ones at the Department of Education.
At the outset of the negotiations a total of 780 claims had been received by the Government and the congregations, she said.
Sr Maxwell went on to explain that because of their ageing profile it would be “totally inappropriate” for members of the congregations to be involved in child care in Ireland in the future. This was something which “was fully accepted”, she said.
However, she believed the Irish experience had lessons for all when it came to their work abroad.
“The involvement of religious in the provision of services needs to be carefully scrutinised by the congregations to ensure they don’t take on more than they are professionally able to deliver,” she said.
This was a lesson particularly for those in developing countries in the context of increasing vocations and where Aids orphans were concerned, she added.