Archbishop Diarmuid Martin The company tasked with setting up and running the World Meeting of Families (WMOF) in Ireland is to be put into voluntary liquidation after losses of €4.56m last year.
The decision is believed to have been made by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and others after various fundraising initiatives across Ireland failed to meet costs. The document lodged with the Companies Office declared that World Meeting of Families 2018 Ltd was solvent when being put into liquidation, and has a total of €71,387 assets.
The WMOF took place in August last year and included various talks and workshops in the RDS in Ballsbridge and the visit of Pope Francis.
Borrowings
In total the company spent €18.56m last year, while the total amount they were able to fundraise was €13.99m. Despite the €4.56m difference the directors said it was “in line with projections and fully covered by bank borrowings. Fundraising will continue to address this deficit.”
The directors said they were satisfied with the work undertaken and completed during the period and the spending was within their planned budgets over the period.
The general public contributed €1.1m while the company generated €107,938 in income from merchandise and €338,962 in exhibition income.
Event costs including the papal Mass in the Phoenix Park and the concert at Croke Park amounted to €12.5m last year.
The events were assisted by 11,000 volunteers and volunteer costs last year totalled €311,635 with a further €819,960 spent on marketing and promotional costs.
The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference provided €10.07m in income and €294,062 in services last year. Staff costs amounted to €1.4m with the company employing 33 people, with the highest paid employee earning €90,000-100,000.