The salaries of clergy now lag well below the average wage, according to accounts for 2006 published by the diocese of Killaloe. The accounts show that the 118 priests attached to the diocese received an annual salary of only €20,000, with the total annual wage bill of the diocese standing at €2.9m.
The total income of the diocese in 2006 was €838,000, while running expenses came to €733,000.
Speaking at the release of the accounts, Bishop Willie Walsh said a third of the income of the diocese – or €290,000 – now came from investments which were “professionally managed”, while €41,000 came from bequests.
“Our accounts show a modest surplus and over half of income comes directly from the parishes in the form of a contribution in the region of 12.5 per cent from their normal yearly income.”
Meanwhile, the accounts show that the Killaloe diocese has now paid almost €900,000 to victims of clerical sex abuse, €191,401 of it in 2006 alone.
Dr Walsh said the “ongoing fallout” from what he called “the tragedy of sexual abuse by a small number of clergy in the distant past” continued to take time and resources.
The accounts show the funding of diocesan expenditure was helped by the sale of six acres of land at the bishop’s Ennis residence for €1.5m.
The bishop said that at all times decisions about the use of property in Church hands were made “in the service of the Church and the wider community”.
“This service by the Church of the wider community is evidenced in the recent dedication of some 15.5 acres of diocesan land worth some €10m, to the development of care of older persons in our community,” he declared.
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