Catholic bishops draw plans for internal audit

Catholic bishops are still drawing up plans for the Church’s internal audit of child abuse allegations.

There had been fears religious orders would be exempt from scrutiny of how complaints were dealt with.

It is expected the terms of reference covering secular and order clergy will be published in the coming weeks.

Secretary General of CORI’s child protection office Sister Elizabeth Maxwell, says no one will escape investigation.

"The bishops, having announced it, were very quickly in contact with CORI, and asked us what our position would be in relation to it.

Sr Maxwell added: "We had to obviously take some time to consider it from our point of view, we then communicated our position to the Bishop, which was one of total co-operation."