Sir, - It is disingenuous of the O'Morchoe to suggest (August 4th) that £800,000 requires to be spent now on Kilkenny Palace with the inevitable conclusion that the Church cannot afford to keep it.
That is the cost of a total conservation plan funded by the State and designed to convert the house into offices for the Heritage Council, not the cost of its continued use as a private residence. The case of Farmleigh is an exact parallel. It has just been announced that it will cost £11 million to fit it out for its new use as a State guesthouse. Are we to infer that Lord Iveagh was unable to keep his house in proper repair? Of course not.
This deanery house, dating mainly from 1782, has had money spent on it regularly over the years and it will certainly require significant sums in the future. If someone were to present us with £1 million, no doubt we could find ways of spending it all at once. But that is certainly not necessary.
At the nub of this controversy is the policy of the Representative Church Body officials that bishops should live in modern residences and financial information is being presented in such a way as to support that conclusion. - Yours, etc.,
Robert MacCarthy, Dean of St Patrick's, Upper Kevin Street, Dublin 8.