One in Four says if it is left to a bishop to make a judgment call on whether information is relevant or not, details which could later prove of importance in safeguarding children may never be disclosed.

“We are questioning still the fact that each bishop will retain discretion as to whether to bring forward allegations or not. What happens in many dioceses is that a preliminary investigation takes place to see if an allegation has some credibility,” said the group’s director, Maeve Lewis.

“That discretion needs to be removed. Regardless of how ill-founded or inconclusive an allegation is, the only people with the skill and authority to investigate it should be the Health Service Executive (HSE), social workers or the gardaí.”

The question of what to do with unproven allegations or suspicions, so-called “soft information”, about priests and other religious resulted in the failure of the HSE’s attempts to conduct a national audit of child abuse allegations and investigations in Catholic dioceses over the past two years.

Bishops said they could not complete section five of the audit form because it demanded full disclosure of all details and they feared they could be pursued for damages by any person about whom information was supplied if it turned out to be false or unproven.

The implications of that became clear last month with the publication of the report compiled by the Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children (NSBC) into abuse in the Cloyne diocese.

Report author Ian Elliot heavily criticised Cloyne Bishop John Magee for failing to alert the HSE to two complaints of abuse by priests under his administration.

The diocese pleaded its hands were tied as it was acting on legal advice that it could not give unproven information to a public body as the information then became public property.

Under an agreement reached at the weekend between the bishops and the Government, a temporary way has been found around that barrier.

Bishops are to fulfil the requirements of section five of the HSE’s audit forms purely with statistical information and proven facts about allegations and investigations but without having to disclose soft information.

Legislation enabling them to disclose soft information without fear of legal action is to follow before the summer.

The same legislation will also open the way for the exchange of information between the authorities and lay organisations involvedin childcare and children’s activities.

Maeve Lewis said it was recognised that individuals falsely or mistakenly accused had a right to protection, as did those who passed on information about them, but she said it was vital the legislation put an emphasis on full disclosure as well as full protection.