Fund-raising, lending, gambling and drinking

RADIO REVIEW:CHRISTINE BUCKLEY said she was having her breakfast on Tuesday morning when she heard an item on Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio One, weekdays) saying that the Bishop of Ferns, Dr Denis Brennan, was asking his parishioners for €60,000 per annum over 20 years to help pay compensation and legal bills arising from child sex abuse claims.

(However, if the property market improves, the Church said it will then be able to sell off more assets.) “I am absolutely reeling,” Buckley, who is director of the Aislinn support and education group for survivors of industrial schools in Ireland, told Lunchtime (Newstalk 106-108, weekdays) later that day. “It is just so shocking to look for money, particularly for the victims of Ferns. Judas wouldn’t have behaved in such a bad manner.”

Earlier that day, Eugene Doyle, chairman of the Ferns Diocesan Finance Committee, had told Morning Ireland, "We'd given the commitment to parishioners from the very start that the normal collection on a Sunday would not be used towards settlement claims." It is also shocking, but not inconceivable, that they might even have considered that.

Doyle said the diocese had re-mortgaged the bishop’s house for €1.8 million, and had already received €650,000 from the Government.

On Lunchtime,Eamon Keane asked Doyle: "How much has the Vatican stumped up?" He replied, "I wouldn't have those figures." Buckley said, "I can tell you the Vatican has contributed nothing."

Frustratingly, Doyle repeatedly said he was a volunteer: “I’m just an ordinary parishioner.” He is either the official spokesman or he is not; being a volunteer doesn’t give him immunity from tough questions.

Buckley added, “Eugene, I honestly feel you’re being used here. The person we should really be speaking to is Bishop Brennan. You’re out begging for money on behalf of the church. Do you not see how awful this makes us feel?” She said it wasn’t about money. “The answer to this is about space and healing.”

Buckley said she and a camera crew recently visited the site of St Vincent’s Industrial School, Goldenbridge, to which she had been sent and in which she had laboured as a child. The site had been sold off and redeveloped for housing, she said. “How much money was paid into the Vatican to make it into the wealthy state that is on the back of the children . . . and on the back of the wonderful volunteers?” she asked. Nobody had an answer.

This latest sorry chapter proves again that the Church is as out of touch as ever when dealing with the fallout from this scandal and yet, when it comes to asking for money, can miraculously humble itself when it needs to.

There is another troubled institution that may soon be looking for more money from the taxpayer, but there is one important difference: parishioners of Ferns can say, “No,” or, “No, thank you.” In the case of Allied Irish Bank, we have precious little choice.

On Morning Ireland, Emma McNamara did a cracking interview with AIB group managing director, Colm Doherty. "I think the current retail banking model we have in Ireland is quite dysfunctional . . . We're currently paying more for the money that we borrow than we're charging our customers," he said. (And who's to blame?)

“You’ve stopped taking mortgage switchers,” McNamara said. “What this looks like from the outside . . . is that the commercial property loans you gave out are the ones that did the damage, but you’re taking it out on homeowners.” It was a loaded question. Doherty said he would consider taking switchers if they moved all their banking business, not just their mortgages.

However, Doherty added, “It is inevitable, unfortunately, that pricing right across the product range, including mortgages, will have to go up.” In other words, higher interest rates are on the cards, in addition to AIB transferring €23 billion in loans to Nama, the State’s previous €3.5 billion recapitalisation, not to mention its future capital requirements. On behalf of the taxpayer: AIB, you’re welcome.

McNamara asked what kind of bank AIB will be, post-Nama. “We will definitely be a smaller bank,” he said. Which kind of states the obvious.

Speaking of gambling your future away, Problem Gambling in Ireland: It Could Be You (Life FM, Wednesday), a seven-part series presented by Paul McCarthy, started this week. The National Lottery won't be doing cartwheels over that title. The Cork-based programme-makers are hoping other radio stations will broadcast it in an effort to raise awareness for the addiction.

“Many a night I’d get the big jackpot, but it would be no good to me because the next night I’d throw it all back in again,” one former gambler said. If you substitute the public finances for the roulette wheel, it sounded remarkably familiar.