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	Irish Catholic Priests Take Pay Cuts As Bank Stocks Tumble By Louisa Nesbitt Bloomberg July 22, 2009 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aRHSB7EQsOj4 Bloomberg — Irish Roman Catholic priests in the country's second-biggest diocese took pay cuts of about 10 percent after church investments in bank stocks dropped as much as 7 million euros ($10 million). The Killaloe diocese, which covers parts of the midlands and west of Ireland, cut salaries by between 8 and 12 percent, after shares fell and bank dividends were eliminated, Willy Walsh, the Bishop of Killaloe, said in an interview with Ireland's RTE radio today. Ireland's ISEF Index of financial stocks has fallen 93 percent from its Feb. 2007 peak, as the banking system last year came close to collapse after the real estate prices tumbled and credit markets froze. The government has nationalized Anglo Irish Bank Corp., and pumped 7 billion euros into Bank of Ireland Plc and Allied Irish Banks Plc to help save the lenders as bad debts surged. "All of us thought that bank shares were a safe as possible place to put money," Walsh said. "Obviously in hindsight, they weren't." Walsh said he wasn't disputing newspaper reports that the church's investments declined in value by as much as 7 million euros, adding the capital had come from legacies left to the diocese. Before the stock market decline, the diocese's shares were worth about 9 million euros, the Irish Times reported today. They are now worth about 2 million euros, the Dublin-based newspaper said. Around 120 priests work in the diocese which covers most of County Clare, a large portion of Tipperary and parts of Offaly, Laois, and Limerick. There are 58 parishes in the diocese, with a population of about 122,000, according to the diocese's Web site. To contact the reporter on this story: Louisa Nesbitt in Dublin at lnesbitt@bloomberg.net
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