FORMER Bishop of Limerick Dr Donal Murray had no personal investment in Bank of Ireland, the diocesan finance manager said this week after figures published in recent days suggested both the Catholic Church and Church of Ireland in Limerick shipped huge losses after share prices collapsed.Both dioceses said they were examining the figures published in an Irish Independent investigation at the weekend which contained details of the bank's register of shareholders and showed religious institutions, charities, politicians and businesspeople making huge losses.
These were based on a peak price of €18.70 per share in early 2007 and a price of just 43 cent last week.
Listed among the losers in the Catholic Church were Rev Donal Murray and a separate shareholding held by the "Bishop of Limerick", with respective losses in the order of €258,000 and €73,000.
Church of Ireland bodies said to have lost out included the Dean of St Mary's Cathedral (€90,000) and the Rector of St Michael's (€258,000) in the city, and the Leamy Protestant Board of Education (€523,000) in Adare."In the first instance, I wish to advise that Bishop Donal Murray does not have any personal shareholding in bank shares," stated Tony Sadlier, finance manager for the Diocese of Limerick.
He believes there may be confusion "between holdings of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Limerick and the Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick".
“The diocese itself does not have any invested funds,” she said.
Investments by individual parishes were a matter for parishes themselves with no direction from the diocese, she added.
Dean Maurice Sirr, who is both Dean of St Mary’s and Rector of St Michael’s, could not be contacted for comment as he is out of the country this week.
Speaking in general terms, Bishop Williams said Church organisations were not alone in “making long-term investments on the basis that they were blue chip companies and less risky. How little we all knew.”
SIC: LL/IE
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