INDEMNITY DEAL DELIVERY:THE RELIGIOUS orders that negotiated an indemnity deal with the Government in June 2002 have to date fully transferred 21 properties worth €26.8 million to State agencies, the Department of Education said yesterday.
A further 40 properties are in the process of being transferred and are in use or available for use by the intended recipients, according to the department, which negotiated the deal.
A further two properties that formed part of the deal have not been transferred because of complications around title and planning and their transfer may not go ahead. If the difficulties cannot be resolved, the department will look for replacement properties.
The deal was for €127 million in total. Cash contributions of €52 million and services worth €10 million have been delivered in full, according to the department. The property element of the congregations’ contribution has been given a value of €66 million.
The department said the first cash contribution, of €12.65 million, was paid on June 5th, 2002. The balance was paid by way of four instalments between September 2002 and May 2003.
“The contribution was submitted through the solicitor for Cori without a breakdown by congregation.” A final cash contribution of €10.86 million arose when one of the properties initially intended for transfer, proved to have title difficulties. The spokeswoman for the department said she only had values for the properties that had been fully transferred, although she accepted the department had a global figure for all the properties due to be transferred.
She said 24 properties with a value of €17.7 million had been transferred bar the resolution of some outstanding formalities to do with the conditions of the indemnity deal. A further 19 properties were at various stages of transfer.
She was not in a position to confirm that all the properties involved had been transferred subsequent to the deal or arising from the deal.
A breakdown of the properties by transfer shows that 33 came from the Sisters of Mercy, 10 from the Rosminians, seven from the Christian Brothers, five from the Sisters of Charity, three from the Presentation Brothers, two each from the Hospitalier Order and the Daughters of Charity, and one from the Brothers of Charity.
A three-acre site at Merrion, Dublin, given to Dublin City Council for social housing by the Sisters of Charity, had a value of €8.9 million assigned to it, the highest of the identified values released yesterday.
The Terenure Secondary School building, transferred by the Presentation Brothers, was given a value of €4.5 million.
A site at Cloughsimon, Co Cork, that was to be transferred by the Rosminians, was not transferred and €101,600 was given in lieu.
