FORMER Archbishop of Dublin, Desmond Connell, is to move out of his palace in Drumcondra in the northside of Dublin, to a house worth about ?7m in the southside of the city.

While taxpayers will be asked to foot a compensation bill of over ?1bn to victims of clerical abuse, Cardinal Desmond Connell is to move into a large semi-detached house on Eastmoreland Street, just off Baggot Street in Dublin 4.

According to the Sunday World , the cardinal's new base backs onto St Mary's church and was bought by the Catholic church back in the 1950s.

Connell's replacement as archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin from Ballyfermot, will now be able move into the archbishop's palace in Drumcondra, which is conservatively estimated to be worth around ?200m.