Health board acted ‘inconsistently’

THE former South Eastern Health Board’s responses to allegations of child sex abuse were “not consistent”, the Ferns report found.

The probe noted that in 1988, allegations by 10 children in Monageer, Ferns, Co Wexford, were passed on to gardaí and church authorities, but seven of the children were interviewed together.

The report found that questioning of abuse victims should be carried out individually and in private “in order to avoid contaminating evidence for future court proceedings”.