THE HIGH Court will next week hear additional arguments related to exactly how much may be published of the report of the investigation into the handling by Catholic Church and State authorities of child sex abuse allegations against clerics in the Dublin Archdiocese.
Mr Justice Paul Gilligan had last week directed the report could be published with the exception of one chapter – chapter 19, which refers to a particular individual, plus 21 additional references to the same person in the body of the report.
He made that direction on the basis that publication of the material might prejudice criminal proceedings.
After the judge’s ruling, it was expected the report would be published with those exclusions this week, but concerns subsequently arose that other material in the report may also affect criminal proceedings. That led to a further application to the court and yesterday, after hearing matters in private, the judge said in public “an issue” had been raised about the report which had not been brought to his attention, either earlier this month when he was dealing with issues relating to publication, or when he delivered his judgment on publication.
The judge adjourned the matter to next Wednesday, October 28th.
The report deals with the handling of abuse allegations against a sample of 46 priests between 1975 and 2004 and was presented to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Dermot Ahern, last July.
He then applied to the court for directions on publication arising from his concern that publication of parts of the report might prejudice criminal proceedings.
Four clerics were notice parties to the application. Last week, Mr Justice Gilligan ruled on that matter.
The Minister brought his additional application yesterday following discussions between the Minister’s officials, the DPP and the Attorney General’s office.
The Minister for Justice’s spokesman said clarification was needed because there were still concerns about pending criminal proceedings.