IRELAND
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
THE CHIEF executive of the Catholic Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) has warned that proposed legislation on mandatory reporting could weaken the church’s policy on child protection.
Ian Elliott has said the Government’s Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill, 2012, “will not achieve what it intends unless it is amended”.
His concern centres on “the proposed and currently inadequately qualified defence of ‘reasonable excuse’ in failing to disclose information around defined offences against children” in the Bill.
He said the provision in the proposed legislation allows exceptions where mandatory reporting is concerned, and these are not contained in the church’s guidelines.
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