His carefully crafted words effectively asked what has been learned since the 2005 Ferns report on child abuse in the Wexford diocese.

These concerns emerged after this month’s scathing report on the Cloyne Diocese by the National Board for Safeguarding Children.

Dr Martin asked the bishops and the Health Service Executive to prove enough was being done to keep children from harm’s way.

He wanted to know if a common child protection standard applied across all dioceses. And how the HSE audited the handling of abuse allegations.

It emerged last night this diocesan audit, minus the details on Cloyne, was completed by the HSE and presented to the office of the Children’s Minister on January 31, before Barry Andrews was appointed.

It has not been published.

Dr Martin also questioned what support, both inside and outside religious orders, had the Church-established National Board for Safeguarding Children received.

Last night, he said the NBSC was a service available to the Church to ensure there were sufficient protections for children but people were inclined to slip back into their old ways.

The NBSC, established by the Church as an independent watchdog in 2006, was responsible for the report on Cloyne released last week.

It found that Bishop of Cloyne John Magee had not followed the accepted bishops’ guidelines contained in Our Children our Church.

However, while having produced this report, the NBSC’s legal vulnerability was exposed by its attempt to have Mr Andrews publish the report in the Dáil, with the benefit of Dáil privilege.

Mr Andrews said he followed the letter of the law and would not handle the NBSC report — save to pass it on to the HSE.

On RTÉ Mr Andrews said if handed the same report he would do the same.

The Childcare Act and the Church’s policy document outlined a clear structure for investigating child abuse. The Church should report all allegations of child abuse to the HSE.

In documents seen by the Irish Examiner this, dating from February 27, the Office for the Minister for Children instructed the NBSC to deal directly with the HSE.

The HSE and the office pleaded with the NBSC to channel its report through the health service.

But the correspondence from the NBSC revealed it felt trapped in a legal bind.
Had the minister published it through the Oireachtas, it would have parliamentary privilege.

The NBSC even sought indemnity from the Government, this would have allowed it to publish potentially defamatory material.

The NBSC did not send the report onto the HSE but did not stop the minister from doing so. Archbishop Martin’s comments yesterday reveal the misgivings some hold about the HSE’s ability to act.

He said an audit on protection measures was commissioned two years ago but not delivered.

Similarly a report on Cloyne started in 2007 has still not been published.

Mr Andrews said he will bring both to the first cabinet meeting of 2009.

However, the HSE said the Children’s Office had the audit on all the dioceses except Cloyne since January.

The HSE has since begun a related audit on religious orders which will be presented in early 2009.

As the new year beckons Dr Martin and many others are wondering if the lessons of Ferns will be learned.