The Religous Orders are cashing in their chips at the taxpayers expense

[gulliblepleb]

The Religious Institutions have rendered great service to the Nation down through the may years in the Fields of Medicine and Education.

They have also earner criticism for the act of a minority within their ranks, yet they have made a contribution to our Society when others did not or could not. Their ranks are being depleted in terms of a new generation to carry on their work at least in Ireland.

The case for them remaining in the fields of Education and Medicine diminishes from some perspectives as the State sector has picked up the load and the tax payer has shouldered the burden.

To many of the orders far away lands beckon where new souls are to be won and where the State does not pick up the load or the tab, or if it does does not do so to the extent that it might.

Gradually the orders are passing the responsibility for the management of their organisations to community control, or to the State.

While in some cases Assets such as schools which have been run by the orders are not being withdrawn from that use and sold off to meet the cost of furthering the objects of the Orders in far away lands.

There is a case of obvious public interest in funding the orders any further if they are free to withdraw the assets from community use and liquidate them.

A case in point is a secondary school in Meath where the Order are pushing for a new publicly funded school to be built which would release the existing school on a valuable site for liquidation at the market, with the proceeds being applied to the objects of the Order as they see fit.

Some of the Orders have surrendered the Assets to the Community, but this will not happen in every event. I do not object to the orders applying their property as they see fit.

I propose that the voluntary sector should not be funded from the public purse for capital and current spending unless it vest the assets funded in the Community which it serves.

The notion of the Tax payer paying the piper and the Orders calling the tune does not seem to make sense.

In many cases extending the schools on the existing site would be the most cost effective course, as opposed to building on a new site in order to release the existing site and building to the orders.

Further funding should be conditional on the assets of the orders being vested in the communities they serve. Otherwise its not such a good deal for the taxpayer.

Cashing in the chips and using the taxpayer to fund new building on new sits is an abuse of the taxpayer, given current economic circumstances and the generosity of the tax payer picking up a tab of 1.6 billion for the Redress scheme

[driver08]

I know its the case in parish run schools that if the school is to be closed and the parish as the owner of the building decides to sell it, then the Department of Education takes a percentage of the money from the sale of the school to cover the investment it made into its construction and/or maintenance. I assume that this would also be the case with schools owned by religious orders.