SECTIONS OF the Murphy report which deal with former priest Tony Walsh will now be published at noon today, instead of Monday as originally planned.
The 40 pages involved will be available at www.justice.ie from midday. A Department of Justice spokesman said yesterday it was bringing forward publication as the task had turned out to be less complex than expected.
The Murphy report followed a statutory inquiry into the handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations by church and State authorities in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese between 1975 and 2004.
Chapter 19, as well as 21 other references to Walsh in the report, were withheld by order of Mr Justice Paul Gilligan in the High Court on October 15th, 2009, prior to publication of the report on November 26th, 2009.
Mr Justice Gilligan made that ruling because criminal proceedings were pending against Walsh on charges of the sexual abuse of three children. On December 6th last, Walsh was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment, four suspended, after pleading guilty in two of the cases and on being convicted in the third.
On Wednesday last Mr Justice Gilligan set aside his October 15th order. However, he ruled that those parts of chapter 20 redacted by him in a second order on October 21st, 2009, should remain so, as proceedings were in progress in that case.
Meanwhile, the Northern Executive has announced it is to hold an inquiry into historical institutional abuse in Northern Ireland.
After the Executive met yesterday, First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said an interdepartmental taskforce has been set up to consider the nature of the inquiry and to make recommendations.
The taskforce is expected to report in March on what practical assistance can be given to victims of institutional abuse. In July there should be more detail on how an inquiry will proceed. Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness said the inquiry would cover church and state institutions.
