The Catholic Church’s safeguarding board received the highest number of abuse allegations in a single year since it began publishing annual reports 16 years ago.
There was a 50 per cent increase in the number of new clerical abuse allegations received by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the year to March 31st, according to its latest annual report which has just been published.
The board received 385 clerical child abuse allegations in the year compared with 252 in the previous year.
The vast majority of the new allegations relate to five decades – 1950s-1990s – with 332 or 86 per cent of the new 385 allegations reported in the year covering those 50 years.
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Just three of the new abuse allegations reported related to the past 25 years, though 47 of the new allegations, or 12 per cent, did not have any definite time frame attributed to them.
By contrast, in the report for the previous year to the end of March 2024, the number of clerical child sex abuse allegations increased by just one on the previous year, to 252, compared with 251 in the year to March 2023.
The board chief executive Aidan Gordon said the large increase in new allegations related to the scoping inquiry report on abuse at schools that was published last September.
He said the increase in allegations received by the board occurred “predominantly” from September 2024 and “coincided with the release of the Report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools run by religious (members of religious orders) and the subsequent media coverage”.
“These events in September 2024 appear to have given individuals renewed strength to tell of their experiences,” he wrote.
“While this is undoubtedly an extremely difficult undertaking for those who have suffered any type of abuse as a child, it is good to be able to begin to address that trauma and we are grateful for the production of such a comprehensive and far-reaching report by Mary O’Toole SC,” he said, referring to the lawyer who carried out the scoping inquiry.
Her report found that almost 2,400 allegations of historical sexual abuse were recorded by 308 schools run by religious orders across Ireland with allegations made against 884 accused.
Some 182 survivors spoke to the inquiry about what happened to them over the decades from the early 1960s to the early 1990s.
Of the total 385 abuse allegations received by the board up to March 31st last, 338 were made against members of the clergy, with 44 made against diocesan priests.
Of the total allegations received, 291 concerned sexual abuse, with 55 relating to physical abuse, while other allegations concerned boundary violations where someone’s personal space was invaded, emotional abuse and neglect.
The worst decade for newly reported abuse allegations was the 1970s, from which 111 allegations were made.
This was followed by the 1980s, which gave rise to 92 allegations, followed by the 1960s with 81 allegations and the 1950s with 34.
Fourteen allegations related to incidents from the 1990s, while there were no allegations for the period covering the 2000s. There was just one relating to the 2010s and two in the 2020s to date.
The accused clergy in these latest figures number 376, of whom 241 are dead. There were 34 in prison, while 52 had been laicised or were out of ministry.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the scoping inquiry report last September, a high-level Inter-Departmental Group (IDG) was appointed by the then minister for education Norma Foley to examine its recommendations and to draft terms of reference for a commission of investigation into schools.
It is understood the group has reported to the Minister for Education Helen McEntee and she is in consultation with the Attorney General before bringing recommendations to Government on what should happen next.
