Laws on abuse suspects delayed

LAWS allowing gardaí, schools and health authorities exchange so-called “soft-information” about suspected paedophiles have still not been drafted because of what the Government described as “complex constitutional issues”.

Minister for Children, Barry Andrews, promised the laws would be published before the summer in his response to the clerical sex abuse scandal in Cloyne at the start of the year.

The laws were to be completed by July.

The Office of the Minister for Children said: “The proposed legislation will need to have regard to a range of complex constitutional, and other, issues including the right to equality before the law, the right to a good name, the right to privacy, the right to earn a livelihood and the right to fair procedures.

“The drafting of the legislation will also need to be mindful of the European Convention of Human Rights,” it said.

The issue of “soft information” came to the fore when bishops claimed they could not complete a section of the HSE’s audit because it demanded disclosure of all details, and they feared they could be pursued for damages by a person about whom information was supplied if it turned out to be false or unproven.