Reporting rules will ‘weaken’ child safety policy

Proposed legislation on mandatory reporting of child sex abuse will “materially weaken” child safety policies in the Catholic Church, the institution’s clerical abuse watchdog has warned.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church has called on the Government to tighten the current proposal on “reasonable excuse”, which will give people, in certain circumstances, a defence not to report suspected abuse.

The warning comes as the board reports that it dealt with 237 new allegations of clerical abuse against priests in the last year — all but six of them historical cases.

In his statement, the NBSCC's chief executive, Ian Elliott, criticised the Criminal Justice Bill 2012, which deals with mandatory reporting of suspected abuse.

“We have engaged with state authorities and have already expressed our initial concern around the proposed and currently inadequately qualified defence of ‘reasonable excuse’ in failing to disclose information around defined offences against children and vulnerable persons in the specifically proposed Criminal Justice Bill,” he said.

“In the absence of amendment, it is foreseeable that our existing Church policy, designed to safeguard children, might be materially weakened by the very legislation that has been promoted by Government as a means to strengthen it.”

Asked to clarify the concerns raised by Mr Elliott, a spokesperson for the board said: “ ‘Reasonable excuse’ creates the possibility that someone could be told that they do not want the statutory authorities to be informed of an accusation of abuse. This would mean the information does not reach the appropriate authorities. That would weaken the mandatory reporting that already is in place.”

The issue was the subject of lengthy debate in Oireachtas justice committee hearings, during which groups working in the area expressed differing views on whether the obligation to report should be absolute or subject to qualification, such as reasonable excuse.

Speaking last May on the bill, Justice Minister Alan Shatter said there would be limited defences for people “such as a parent or guardian or medical professional who is acting in the interests of the health and well being of the child or vulnerable adult”.

The NBSCC report shows there were 237 allegations against 196 clerics between Mar 31, 2001 and Apr 1, 2012. Of these, 11 are still in ministry and 57 are not. A further 66 are elderly and infirm, laicised or dismissed, and 62 are deceased.

The board said it had 156 requests for advice from the Church in dealing with allegations of abuse, up from 104 cases the previous year.

Mr Elliott said the board was “struggling” to deal with its workload and resource levels were a concern. He said audits on six diocese had been completed and audits on the remaining dioceses would be completed by 2013.