The Spiritan order is to sell one of the biggest farms in Co Tipperary as part of its pledge to compensate victims of abuse.<\/p>\n
The 765-acre Rockwell Farm will be sold on the open market and is likely to fetch at least \u20ac20 million, according to industry sources. <\/p>\n
The land was used for an agricultural college until the 1980s and is now a dairy farm with up to 650 cows. <\/p>\n
By November of last year, 359 survivors of abuse at Spiritan schools had come forward, including 347 disclosed in the scoping inquiry report on abuse at private fee-paying schools published in September 2024<\/p>\n
The schools involved were Blackrock College, its feeder junior school Willow Park, Rockwell College, St Mary\u2019s College, St Michael\u2019s College and Templeogue College. <\/p>\n
In a statement, Spiritans Provincial Fr Brendan Carr said the order had been upfront about not having the cash to compensate victims and would instead need to sell assets. <\/p>\n
He said the order had been \u201cfully transparent about their financial position\u201d from the beginning. <\/p>\n
\u201cProgress is being made and Rockwell Farm will be the first of these properties to be sold, but this involves multiple legal, valuation and regulatory steps that simply take time to complete.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added that as a registered charitable organisation, the Spiritans are subject to the oversight of the Charities Regulator and subject to audit.<\/p>\n
The order also felt a need \u201cto respond clearly to the suggestion that the Spiritans are deliberately delaying or obstructing progress\u201d. <\/p>\n
Last Friday, the order was accused of adding to the suffering of the survivors<\/a> by missing the deadline given last June in announcing a redress scheme.<\/p>\n The Spiritans had not provided any such update at the end of summer, the Restore Together group said, and had been seeking a meeting with the order ever since.<\/p>\n Responding on Wednesday, Fr Carr said \u201ca commitment was made\u201d but \u201cprogress has not been as fast as anyone would wish\u201d.<\/p>\n