The One in Four organisation has called for constitutional changes to strengthen children's rights and give young people more legal protection from abuse.

Ireland's Catholic bishops have called on the Government to immediately introduce a cross-border vetting system for people working with children.

The Catholic Church’s new guidelines on child protection show extraordinary arrogance in defying the state’s authority in looking after vulnerable youngsters, a sex abuse victims group said today.

THE weekend proposal by Bishop of Killaloe Dr Willie Walsh that Catholic priests should be allowed to marry is not a new one, although it is something which has always been anathema to Rome.

SURVIVORS of sexual abuse and the public are being asked to respond to a nationwide trawl of opinion on the way forward in the wake of the Ferns Report into clerical sexual abuse in Wexford.

The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre has reported a 75% increase in calls to its helpline service since the publication of the Ferns Report last month.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, tonight sharply rebuked a Government backbencher’s calls to end the special relationship between the state and the Catholic Church in the wake of the damning Ferns Report.

A Government backbencher’s calls to end the special relationship between the state and the Catholic Church were today rebuked in the Dáil by Minister for Finance Brian Cowen.

CLEARER guidelines are needed for handling sex abuse allegations in schools, the Labour Party has claimed.

The Archbishop of Dublin has urged priests in the diocese to consult parishioners on how to improve child protection.

A PARISH priest was placed under garda protection following verbal assaults on him during Mass in a Co Wexford village.

ASSURANCES by the Catholic hierarchy that their child abuse guidelines are being enforced will not be accepted at “face value”, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said yesterday.

A NATIONAL audit of child sex abuse by priests is likely to be carried out following the findings of the Ferns Report, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said yesterday.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell stated yesterday that he is examining the provision of free legal aid for both victims and accused in civil cases being brought over alleged clerical abuse.

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, indicated that a national investigation will take place into clerical abuse of children when he answered questions from the Fine Gael leader in the Dáil this morning.

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has vowed that failing to take steps to prevent child molestation will be prosecutable as a criminal offence, in line with Ferns Report recommendations.

The Ferns Report, published yesterday afternoon, is expected to dominate leader’s question time in the Dáil later this morning, as the Government has implied that new legislation to protect children will be introduced.

“This is not the end. It is not the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.”

THE Gardaí responded in a “wholly unsatisfactory” manner to one of the most infamous clerical child abuse cases in the Diocese of Ferns, the Inquiry report has stated.

CHILD protection measures need to be radically overhauled in light of the findings of the Ferns Report, support groups claimed yesterday.

THE diocesan response to allegations of child abuse in Ferns, although varied over a span of 40 years, comes in for severe and damning criticism as successive bishops failed to protect vulnerable children from priests they knew to be abusers.