THE Government today received a top-level report into allegations
of clerical child sex abuse in the Catholic diocese of Cloyne.
The report is expected to contain some damning findings on how the claims were dealt with by church and state authorities.
The
commission of investigation, which was headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy,
has completed its inquiries, which covered a 13-year period from January
1, 1996, and February 1, 2009.
It was set up by the Government in
January 2009 after a decision to extend the remit of the existing
investigation commission into allegations in the Dublin Archdiocese.
The report will be presented to Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, who will then submit the findings to the gardai.
Gardai
will present a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who will
determine whether criminal charges should be brought as a result of the
report's conclusions.
The Government must also seek the permission
of the High Court to publish the report and the timing of the
publication will then on the decision of the DPP on charges.
Allegations
The
move to refer the Cloyne allegations to the Murphy commission followed a
report by the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC), a
Catholic Church watchdog, which found that child protection practices in
the diocese were "inadequate and, in some respects, dangerous".
Under
its terms of reference, the commission had to focus on a representative
sample of complaints or allegations of child sex abuse, made to
diocesan and other church authorities and to public and other state
authorities during the period under review.
Defending the decision to refer Cloyne to the commission, Children's Minister Barry Andrews said the NBSC report had used very stark language about how the diocese had operated child protection procedures.
"These
included saying that they had operated somewhat dangerous procedures,
that they favoured perpetrators over victims in certain circumstances,
and had taken a fairly minimalistic role in terms of sharing information
with the board, even up to 2008," Mr Andrews added.
A Health Service Executive
report had also highlighted an absence of information about specific
incidents alleging abusive behaviour and said that information had not
been made available by the bishops.
SIC: II/IE