Shatter wants new laws to overrule confessional secrecy

There are concerns that making laws to govern the confessional box could raise serious legal issues in relation to the Irish Constitution.

It comes as Justice Minister Alan Shatter calls for legislation to make it mandatory to report crimes, regardless of any internal rules of a religion.

That is in the wake of the Cloyne report on the handling of clerical child abuse allegations.

Legal expert Paul Anthony McDermott has said respecting religious culture is central to Ireland's Constitution.