STAFF OF the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference at Maynooth are to have their income cut by between 2 per cent and 5 per cent, with effect from this month.
As many as 25 people are believed to be affected.
Last night a spokesman for the bishops said the cuts “reflect the necessity of having to meet the financial challenges currently facing all of us in these economically difficult times”.
He said that at a meeting in Maynooth on December 14th last, staff were asked to agree to a salary cut from January 2012 onwards.
The proposed cuts ranged “from 2 per cent to 5 per cent for lay staff and the cut to salaries for priests and religious working for the episcopal conference will be in line with the recent cuts to salaries paid to clergy working in the archdiocese of Dublin. In 2010, priests’ remuneration in the archdiocese of Dublin was reduced by 6 per cent and by a further 9 per cent in November 2011,” he said.