Saturday, August 27, 2011

Deficit rises as admin costs soar

The deficit now being faced by the Dublin archdiocese has increased as parish collections have fallen and the costs incurred in running the diocese have increased dramatically.

While substantial cash reserves have been eaten up by abuse payouts and legal fees (see right), accounts also reveal that the cost of central administration has sky-rocketed by almost 500pc in less than 10 years.

Accounts for 2009/2010 show that the diocese is spending just shy of €4.8m a year on central administration. In 2002/2003, the figure was just over €1m.

The 2009/2010 accounts -- the latest for which data is available -- show that the archdiocese brought in some €59.4m, down from €66.2m the previous year.

Some €15.6m was raised from 'family offerings' by parishioners usually by way of the traditional 'Sunday envelope' system.

A further €18.3m was raised in parishes for the support of serving, retired and sick priests.

At the same time, the diocese spent some €23.8m supporting priests representing a shortfall of some €5.5m on remuneration alone.

The 'Share Collection' -- which the Dublin archdiocese is trying to revamp -- has played a vital part in redistributing funds from parishes throughout the diocese.

The collection, which is taken up as a second collection in every parish in the diocese, also funds central diocesan services such as administration at Archbishop's House, Catholic Youth Care (CYC) and the Office for Evangelisation.

Latest accounts show that parishioners gave just over €8m to 'Share' in 2009/2010, a drop of €500,000 from the previous year but still more than the €7.8m collected in 2007/2008.

The cost of administration rose by some €300,000 from the 2008/2009 accounts when almost €4.5m was spent running the central structures of the diocese.

The amount of money spent on diocesan and national pastoral services and commissions has fallen sharply.

In 2008/2009, more than €1.5m was spent on these services. 

By 2009/2010, the figures had almost halved to just €887,000.