Child protection - Dáil has failed in first duty of care

Following a meeting with Minister for Children Barry Andrews over the weekend, Cardinal Seán Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin announced that the country’s Catholic bishops are committed to telling the HSE whether all allegations of clerical child sexual abuse have been reported to the civil authorities.

For legal reasons, the Catholic hierarchy stressed that it had previously been unable divulge some information to the HSE’s national audit on child protection practices. The bishops decided at an emergency meeting at Maynooth last Friday to try to find a way around legal difficulties that had prevented them from divulging whether all cases of clerical paedophile abuse had been reported to the civil authorities.

Minister Barry Andrews, Cardinal Brady and Archbishop Martin later agreed to separate the completion of the audit from the issue of “soft information,” such as rumour, hearsay or innuendo which caused legal difficulties.