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THE DUBLIN CATHOLIC Archdiocese has begun restructuring the support services it provides to parishes after halving the number of staff working in the Child Safeguarding and Protection Service (CSPS).
The number of staff working in the CSPS has been reduced from 10 to five people in recent months as part of a wider redundancy programme in the Archdiocese.
A voluntary redundancy scheme was made available to employees in June 2020 due to financial shortfalls caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, the overall number of staff employed by the Archdiocese has reduced from 82 to 42.
In a statement to The Journal, a spokesperson said that despite the cutbacks the Dublin Archdiocese “remains committed to upholding the highest standards in relation to the protection of children and vulnerable adults”.
The CSPS is tasked with keeping children and vulnerable people safe throughout the Dublin area.
The service provides training for priests and parish workers; deals with complaints and concerns about child protection matters, reporting to gardaí where necessary; and monitors the activities of priests known to have abused children in the past in order to minimise the chance of them doing so again.
Last year, the Archdiocese saw a significant decrease in its financial income due to the fact churches were at various periods either unable to hold masses or else had to hold masses with a greatly reduced congregation.
In 2020, there was a 70% reduction in the common fund – money collected at masses from which all priests are paid a monthly allowance, and an 80% fall in the share fund – money used to refurbish parish churches, build parish centres and fund the diocesan administration of central services.
In May 2020, then-Archbishop Diarmuid Martin confirmed that priests in Dublin had agreed to a 25% pay cut. The current Archbishop, Dermot Farrell, took over the role earlier this year, after the redundancy process was introduced.
‘Making the best of our resources’
The spokesperson said the CSPS will continue to work with priests, parishes and parents/guardians to keep children and vulnerable adults safe.
The CSPS office continues to be led by its director Andrew Fagan, who works closely “with the relevant statutory authorities and the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland, so as to maintain best practice in safeguarding standards”, the spokesperson said.
“We are currently working on ways of making best use of the resources available to us by, for example, partnering with other organisations to deliver services and using information technology to deliver safeguarding training, one of our core activities.
“The needs of each office will be kept under review to ensure that all essential services continue to support parishes and their mission,” they added.
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Archdiocese and children are two words that should not be in the same sentence.
@Peter B: I was just going to comment that exact sentence. It’s incredible that the catholic church would be let anywhere near children, or women, or anyone at this stage.
@Ian Downes: and yet people think it’s fine for them to run 90% of our schools.
Honestly who would ever leave a child alone with a priest these days?
@Derek Moran: The vast, vast majority of priests were, and are, decent people. But, hell, a good generalisation makes a good soundbite.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: do you have children? And would you?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: really so the majority of them were speaking out against abuse and helping bring offenders to justice?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: it doesn’t matter if the vast majority of them are decent.
The organisation is rotten to the core.
It was the Vatican who wrote the rules to move abusing priests to other parishes, it was the Vatican that wrote the rules about silencing victims, it is the Vatican that refuses to this day to release countless records to governments and the United nations.
It was the Vatican who sent people over to a commission in Ireland and told victims they were lieing and only in it for the money.
Imagine if the GAA did all this. What same person who deal with the GAA as a whole afterwards?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: I used to look after the IT for a bunch of them. I’ve seen their viewing history. Let’s just say it doesn’t correspond with their teachings.
Church can’t be bothered to compensate abuse victims, spending money on child protection is a low priority.
They have the money, it’s just tied up in assets, mainly land which they won’t sell.
@Barry Somers: lay management companies have the money, they have it tied up on purpose. It really shows how much they care.
Neighbourhood cat ‘committed to protecting mice’ despite slaughtering mice at every available opportunity…
@Jukebox Jim: superb analogy!
“and monitors the activities of priests known to have abused children in the past in order to minimise the chance of them doing so again.”
I know a better way to make sure it never happens again.
Surely, the archdiocese is half as committed as protecting children
@Amanda Ui Fhaircheallaigh: Wonder did ArchBishop take a pay cut.
‘moniters the activities of priests known to have abused children in the past in order to minimise the chance of them doing so again’ Is this a joke?!
This staff cut certainly sends out the wrong message, though I expect the majority of comments here would be exactly the same if they had doubled the number of staff working in child protection.
@Paul Whitehead: Using the analogy above, two cats looking after the mice isnt exactly better than one
have your say