Religious order did not want 'eternal besmirching of names of good people' by keeping abuse records

A religious order that accepted that children were abused in its care told the Minister for Education in 2015 that plans to retain child abuse records would lead to “eternal besmirching of the names of good people”.

Provincial of the Rosminians, Fr Joseph O’Reilly, wrote to then education minister Jan O’Sullivan in 2015 to express his shock at the Government’s plans to retain and seal records relating to child abuse in institutions for 75 years under the Retention of Records Bill.