New child-abuse guidelines are expected to oblige schools to tell the Department of Education and Science when allegations are made against teachers.
The move arises from a case in which a Christian Brothers school knew for three years that an allegation had been made against a teacher, but did not tell the Department.
In a letter to one of the teacher's victims, the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, is critical of the fact that nobody contacted the Department. Both the Brothers and the chairman of the school's board of management knew about the allegation.
The abuser was a Brother in charge of a Dublin school at the time of the offence in 1978. He later left the order and moved to another school. He continued to teach until he was suspended in 1997. He was convicted last year of sexually abusing the victim, then a 12-year-old boy, and admitted abusing another boy two years earlier.
The court suspended his sentence at the request of his victim, who said he did not want the man's family to suffer. The court ordered that the man not be identified, again at the victim's request.
However, the victim, now a married man with children, was extremely critical of the Christian Brothers in court. He accused the order of operating a "code of silence". He said if the Brothers had kept their promises to him the case could have been dealt with years earlier. They had failed to respond to his concerns about the abuser's continuing contact with pupils.
"I approached them in good faith and was led to believe things were in hand and they promised they would get back to me and they didn't," he said.
The Christian Brothers have denied that they failed to respond appropriately to his complaint.
The man says he wrote to the Christian Brothers' Provincialate in 1994 to tell them he had been abused in 1978. In 1996 he discovered the man was still teaching at a Dublin school.
He contacted the chairman of the board of management, a priest. The chairman told him, he says, that the school was told by the Christian Brothers that the complaint was anonymous. That was why nothing had happened since.
On hearing this, the victim made a statement to the Garda Siochana. A file was sent to the DPP some months later. The DPP decided not to prosecute. The victim appealed directly to the DPP, who ordered that the case be reopened. As a result, the abuser was charged and convicted. The school suspended him in 1997.
The Provincial of the Christian Brothers, Brother Kevin Mullan, (who was not Provincial when the complaint was made) told The Irish Times his predecessor had been instructed by the victim that his identity was not to be passed on to anyone. For that reason he told the board of management chairman he was not at liberty to say from whom the complaint had come.
The victim says he made no such request. The victim believes the Christian Brothers should have continued to pursue the matter in the interests of the children at the man's school. That the man left the order in the 1980s should not mitigate their obligations in this regard. He also believes the school should have made a determined attempt to contact him.
In a letter to the victim earlier this year, the Minister said: "I accept that when you made your formal allegation in 1994 it would not have been unreasonable to expect that preventive action would promptly be taken. However, I have made inquiries in the matter and I can assure you that no details of this case were communicated to my Department at the time.
"My Department first became aware of this case only after the teacher had been suspended by his board of management in October 1997. The case was closely monitored in the ensuing months, and in March 1998 the school notified my Department that the teacher had resigned from his post.
"I can assure you that I will not countenance any complacency in relation to procedures for dealing with child-abuse allegations. In fact, a working party representative of the education partners is currently examining the existing guidelines to ensure that they represent a comprehensive and fully updated response to this issue."
A Department spokesman said it was likely that an obligation on schools to inform the Department of allegations against teachers would be included in the new guidelines as a result of this case.
Brother Mullan told The Irish Times that the board of management of the school in which the alleged abuser was teaching in 1994 was the appropriate body to take action. The Christian Brothers had discharged their obligations by informing the chairman about the complaint. He did not believe there was an obligation on the Christian Brothers to inform the Department.