Call to exclude criticised bishops from board roles

BISHOPS criticised in the Murphy report should not be allowed serve as school patrons or hospital board chairpersons, the Labour Party said last night.

The party was reacting to the resignation of the Bishop of Limerick, Donal Murray.

“Whether bishops resign or not is a matter for the Church,” a Labour spokesman said.

“But we consider it inappropriate that people criticised in the Murphy report should hold positions such as patrons of schools.”

The spokesman said party leader Eamon Gilmore had already raised the issue with the Taoiseach and would do so again in the new year.

In a Dáil speech on the Murphy report earlier this month, Mr Gilmore made very clear the party’s position on the issue.

“I believe that whether bishops implicated in the Murphy report resign from ecclesiastical positions is a matter for the Catholic Church,” he said.

“However, whether any such bishop should remain as a patron of a school or otherwise continue in the management or supervision of education or health provision for children should most certainly be a matter for the state.

“I believe, therefore, that where a bishop has been directly implicated in the Murphy report, he should have no role as a school patron or a hospital board chairman,” Mr Gilmore added.

“Effective implementation of child welfare and protection policy in our schools, hospitals and other institutions must be the paramount consideration.

“The patron and members of school boards of management, and their equivalents in our health agencies, must be persons whose integrity, competence and suitability have not been called into question as a result of a public investigation like this.”