MINISTER FOR Justice Alan Shatter has welcomed the decision of the
High Court to allow the publication of the report of the Cloyne
investigation, subject to the deletion of certain references.
He
said he, along with the Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald, would
make arrangements for the publication of the report as soon as
practicable.
This would follow the parties involved agreeing what
deletions were necessary to give effect to the judge’s order.
The
child abuse charity One in Four also welcomed the decision that the
report be published, regretting that the publication of one chapter had
to be postponed.
Its executive director, Maeve Lewis, said it
accepted it was necessary to ensure that current criminal proceedings
were not prejudiced.
“It is important that the cases which come before
the courts are not jeopardised in any way. However, we are concerned
that the omission of certain sections may undermine the integrity of the
report, and may also mean that the full picture of how children were
endangered in the Cloyne diocese will not emerge.”
Connect, a
counselling group set up at the request of survivor groups to provide a
phone counselling and support service to people who have suffered abuse,
said it would be open over the weekend for anyone distressed by the
reporting of the Cloyne report.
The service provides counselling
to survivors of abuse at freephone 1800 477 477 from the Republic of
Ireland and 00800 477 477 77 from Northern Ireland.
Connect received a large volume of calls at the time of the launch of the Ryan and Murphy reports, it said in a statement.