At least three of the six former seminarians, who say they expressed concern to nine bishops about the behaviour of Mgr Micheál Ledwith at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, in the 1983/4 period, have now spoken to Mr George Birmingham SC.
Mr Birmingham was appointed by the Government last April to establish what would be the most appropriate method of inquiry into the handling of clerical child sex abuse complaints in Ferns diocese. Mgr Ledwith is a priest of the Ferns diocese.
Mr Birmingham is due to present his report to the Government either next week or the week after.
He also spoken to Father Gerard McGinnity, a former senior dean at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, who has claimed he was "demoted and humiliated" by the church authorities when he took up the six seminarians' concerns about Mgr Ledwith.
To date, it appears none of the six or Father McGinnty has spoken to Mr Dennis McCullough SC. Mr McCullough was appointed by the bishops on June 12th last to "seek to establish whether and when such complaints were made to any Bishop, Officer or Trustee of the College, their nature and the steps taken in response to them". He told The Irish Times last week he expected his inquiry to be "succinct" and concluded quickly.
Meanwhile the bishops, the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) and the Irish Missionary Union will host a press conference in Dublin today to announce details of a church-wide audit of how complaints about clerical child sex abuse were handled by them over past decades.
The audit was promised by the bishops following their extraordinary general meeting on April 8th after the resignation of the Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey.
Agreement in principle on the audit was reached by the bishops at their summer meeting which ended on June 12th last. Similar agreement was given by CORI at its annual general meeting last week.
Each has agreed that all relevant information will be made available to the "auditors", who will be named tomorrow.
These are expected to number between five and seven people, predominantly lay, and may include abuse victims or their representative.
It is expected the chair may be a female judge or distinguished senior counsel. The audit could take 15 months and its final report will be made public.
