The state may agree to indemnify the Catholic Church against legal actions taken by clerics accused of child abuse.Barry Andrews, the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, is understood to be considering indemnifying non-state agencies to allow the sharing of information on alleged child abusers between his office, the Church, the Health Service Executive (HSE) and gardaí.
The Church and the HSE have claimed that they cannot handle so-called ‘soft’ information, which is accusatory but unsupported by evidence, as they risk being exposed to legal action by those named.
The 2005 report into child abuse in the Ferns diocese recommended that inter-agency committees involving the HSE, the Church and the gardaí should share such information.
However, the HSE told the minister that such committees could not go ahead because of concerns about being exposed to lawsuits.
Bishops and the heads of religious orders refused to answer soft information questions in a recent HSE audit because of fears of being sued.
A spokesman for the minister’s office confirmed that a proposed indemnity was ‘‘one of a large number of interacting factors which has to be taken into account in developing legislative proposals in this most complex area’’ in conjunction with Department of Justice officials.
Andrews has indicated that he intends to have draft legislation prepared within six months. Any decision to provide a state indemnity would also follow a detailed costing and risk analysis by the Department of Finance, according to the spokesman.
Meanwhile, Diarmuid Martin, archbishop of Dublin, addressed 100 parochial childcare representatives from 30 parishes in Killiney in south Dublin last Thursday night.
He gave an emotional account of the personal experiences of victims of clerical child abuse.
A government-established commission of inquiry into the handling of historical abuse cases in Dublin archdiocese is due to report in two weeks’ time.
More than 400 witnesses are believed to have given evidence about alleged abuse carried out by up to 70 priests.
The inquiry has examined sample allegations covering a 40-year period. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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(Source: SBP)