Cloyne Used Radio Windfall to Help Pay Abuse Bills, by Conor Ryan, Noel Baker, Irish Examiner, July 19, 2011

Cloyne Used Radio Windfall to Help Pay Abuse Bills

By Conor Ryan, Noel Baker
Irish Examiner
July 19, 2011

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/cloyne-used-radio-windfall-to-help-pay-abuse-bills-161499.html

The €134,000 that local parishes made from their investment in North Cork Community Radio co-op (NCCR) was released in 2006 following a 10-year battle with tax authorities.

It has now emerged that, at the request of Bishop John Magee, the parishes that helped establish the NCCR co-op in 1989 agreed to donate the proceeds to a new child protection fund.

This was used to contest compensation requests, settle claims and subsidise counselling.

This €134,000 was in addition to €50,000 Monsignor Denis O'Callaghan personally gave to the diocese towards the child-abuse bill.

This money was given to him as reward for his role in seeing through a buyout of a Cork radio company.

Mgr O'Callaghan, who was roundly criticised for his handling of child abuse claims in Cloyne, was chairman of the company responsible for Cork's 96FM and 103FM stations when it was bought by UTV for £28.5 million in 2000.

He was also the chair of its forerunner, Radio County Sound, which was sold for £6m in 1996.

This deal had delivered a £546,940 windfall to the shareholders in NCCR, the bulk of whom were parishes across Cloyne.

However, at the time, the profits could not be released because the NCCR co-op was the focus of an investigation by the Garda into a £1.7m community radio lottery.

The Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to press charges.

Attention has now also turned to the handling of allegations by other bishops.

Internal audits have been completed by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in six dioceses. It is likely that the Diocese of Raphoe will publish its report "in the near future".