The report into how allegations of clerical child sex abuse were handled by church and State authorities in Dublin’s Catholic Archdiocese will be published this afternoon by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern and Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews.However, the Archdiocese Commission of Investigation has expressed regret that “due to circumstances outside its control” its report will not be published in full today.
Acknowledging the disappointment this would cause, it said this would also mean that “a full picture is not available” where the actions of some people in church and State authorities were concerned.
It also described as “a cause of great regret” the leaking of the report, or parts of it, to a newspaper last weekend.
In its statement last night, the commission said “as is clear from the judgment . . . issued on November 19th, decisions were made by the DPP after the report was delivered to the Minister and those decisions could not have been taken into account by the commission in its report”.
The commission was chaired by Ms Justice Yvonne Murphy and included barrister Ita Mangan and solicitor Hugh O’Neill.
Their report is believed to be over 700 pages long and deals with a sample of 46 priests against whom allegations were made.
The commission was set up in March 2006 and its completed report was presented to the Minister for Justice on July 21st.
Its investigation covered the period from January 1st, 1975, to April 30th, 2004, though some earlier allegations re-emerged in that period.
It addressed how allegations were dealt with by four archbishops, including the Most Rev John Charles McQuaid, the Most Rev Dermot Ryan, the Most Rev Kevin McNamara and Cardinal Desmond Connell, all of whom were auxiliary bishops of Dublin over the period as well as chancellors of the archdiocese.
Groups representing survivors of clerical child sex abuse in the Dublin Catholic archdiocese are to be briefed on the report prior to its publication.
The Taoiseach told the Dáil yesterday Department of Justice officials had arranged to brief the groups this morning and that the report would be made available to the media at a press conference in the afternoon.
Survivors of abuse were previously critical of the fact that the Ryan report into abuse of children in institutions throughout the State was made available to media before they saw it when it was published in May.
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