Thursday, July 21, 2011

Radio deals propped up fund to pay abuse claims

BISHOP John Magee’s bid to cover the cost of child abuse claims was bolstered by two controversial takeover deals for local radio services in the county.

The money originated in windfalls from two media firms and one community radio co-op which were all chaired by Monsignor Denis O’Callaghan — who was singled out for particular criticism for his handling of abuse claims in the diocese.

In 2000 he chaired the board of County Media Ltd, which owned Cork’s 96FM and 103FM and was sold to UTV for some £28.5 million.

Mgr O’Callaghan was given a gift of £50,000 for his non-executive work with the company and he donated all of this to the Cloyne Diocese to help pay for the cost of dealing with abuse claims.

However, the largest portion of the money earmarked for child protection measures was rooted in an earlier takeover of the 103FM franchise by a company chaired by Mgr O’Callaghan and partly owned by the North Cork Community Radio (NCCR) co-op.

This group sold its shareholding in the broadcaster, Radio County Sound, in 1996 for £546,940.

NCCR had been set up seven years earlier on the back of a levy of parishioners across the Cloyne Diocese.

Much of the money should have gone back to the communities in 1996.

However, the dividend could not be accessed for 10 years because the NCCR co-op had to deal with the fallout from investigations by the Garda Fraud Squad and the Revenue Commissioners into a £1.7m radio lottery.

The fund remained frozen in a Bank of Ireland account in Mallow during this time.

The delay became protracted because the NCCR co-op got into a legal dispute with the Revenue Commissioners arising out of a probe of the co-op’s capital gains tax liability.

It has now emerged that in October 2006, just as the parishes were in a position to claim back a reduced dividend, Dr Magee wrote to them to suggest using the money to prop up Cloyne’s child protection fund. This was in addition to separate contributions from the parishes’ housekeeping funds.

A diocese spokesman said most parishes took up the bishop’s offer to redirect the NCCR investment, except for a small number that could not afford to.

The parishes’ NCCR contribution came to €134,000, which was used by the diocese as part of a €557,000 pot to pay solicitors, settle cases, fund counselling and repay €30,000 taken from Mallow’s parish fund.

Accounts filed with the Registrar of Friendly Societies show that the €134,000 parish windfall came from a €477,785 total paid out to 1,600 NCCR shareholders in 2006.

The release of this money followed the finalising of its dispute with the tax authority and the payment of €37,760 in legal bills.

When the co-op was established in 1989, parishes in Cloyne invested a total of £25,000 towards the start-up costs of the community radio. This stake was charged across the diocese at a rate of £0.25 per parishioner.

Mgr O’Callaghan held £55 personal shares in the original co-op and went on to be non-executive chairman of the new County Sound outfit, which was part of the package bought by UTV.

Two years earlier, the DPP decided he would not press charges against the NCCR co-op for its management of a charitable lottery. This was because the Garda Fraud Squad investigation did not find evidence of criminal activity.