DUBLIN:AIB has become the second major Irish corporate to donate towards the Papal visit. It is understood that which is 71pc owned by the State, has donated in the region of €100,000 as part of a €20m fundraising drive to host the ninth World Meeting of Families (WMoF) in Dublin this summer.
Last week Bank of Ireland confirmed it is donating the services of a senior executive to the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
Niall O’Shea – head of BoI’s programme to develop and implement an accounting solution for financial instruments – has been seconded to the Irish Bishops, where he is head of financial development for the WMoF.
It is understood the WMoF, whose fundraising committee included publisher and philanthropist Norah Casey, is targeting a small number of high-net-worth individuals to reach the €20m target, around half of which has been reached. At least 10 domestic brands are also being targeted to become €1m-strong strategic partners, but these have yet to be confirmed.
“The World Meeting of Families 2018 does not comment on the individuals and companies that we have approached for funding,” said a spokeswoman. The WMoF has held three collections in Irish churches, each raising an estimated €1m.
There are more than 14,000 registrations for the WMOF2018 Pastoral Congress which takes place in the RDS from August 22-24 – 7,700 registrations are from overseas, predominantly American pilgrims, and 6,931 from Ireland.
