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By Sean Moriarty

There's huge concern this week about the future of much loved care facility St Mary of the Angels when it was revealed that national disability and mental health service providers St John of Gods faces debts of €32.5 million.

St John of Gods runs the Beaufort facility which provides living and education facilities to Kerry adults with special needs - but shocked members of the St Mary of the Angels Parents and Relatives Association have hit out saying action must be taken to avoid the move.

“St Mary’s is as much a part of Kerry as the National Park,” chairman Jack Fitzpatrick told Killarney Advertiser.

“It was gifted to St John of Gods by the Franciscan Sisters, this was done to protect the future of the service in Kerry and now there is a risk it could be sold. St John of Gods, like every charity in the country are severely underfunded and that is why they find themselves in this situation. The title [of the property] is with St John of Gods and following the full letter of the law they could sell it.”

St Mary of the Angels has been run by St John of Gods since the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood Religious Order handed over the facility in 2005.

The national charity revealed earlier this month that it faces massive debts and that it may have to sell some of its assets.

St John of Gods said last September it would be ceasing the majority of its services due to its financial funding crisis and that it would transfer responsibility to the Health Service Executive (HSE).

Two years ago the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood Religious Order sold a 110-acre farm adjacent to the care centre.

The land was bought by legendary London-Kerry construction supremo Dan Tim O’Sullivan who has direct family connections to the care facility. He made the move to prevent it from falling into the hands of developers.

The farm was originally donated to the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood Religious Order by the Doyle family in the 1960s after their only daughter joined the Order.

The Order decided to sell the land to fund the retirement of its nuns with the sale of the farm which was handled by Killarney auctioneer, Tom Spillane in July 2019.