A DELAY in the publication of a report into how allegations of clerical child sex abuse in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese were handled means there is “a danger that the civil authorities could be seen to be acting to protect themselves from public scrutiny”, the One in Four agency has said.
“This must be of concern to the Minister for Justice, who needs to act in a transparent and accountable fashion to ensure public confidence,” said the campaign group’s executive director, Maeve Lewis.
The report “may be fatally compromised by the delay in publication of fundamental sections”. Noting that last month the High Court ruled that publication of one chapter should be delayed in order not to jeopardise ongoing criminal proceedings, she said: “The High Court is now considering whether or not another section ought to be published or withheld.”
It was speculated “that the section currently under review concerns the role of the Garda in investigating allegations of sexual abuse by priests in the Dublin diocese. Should publication of this section be deferred, perhaps indefinitely, the integrity of the report would have to be called into question”, she said. The commission that prepared the report had “examined the role of the gardaí and the former Eastern Health Board as well as the Catholic Church”. If the report was “going to show failures by the civil authorities in protecting children, then this is of equal importance to the anticipated disclosures of failures by the Catholic Church”.
