IRELAND
Health Service Executive
Thursday 11 October 2012
Today, (Thursday, 11th October 2012), the Diocesan Audit Report of the safeguarding arrangements in the Catholic Diocese in Ireland was published by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald T.D.
The audit was originally commissioned by Minister Lenihan in 2005 and presented to Minister Fitzgerald in August 2012.
The audit was carried out by the HSE in the 24 Catholic Dioceses in the Republic of Ireland. It examined 579 allegations in relation to 189 priests, 39 of whom were priests in Ministry at the time an allegation was made. There were 31 criminal convictions. The Diocesan Audit Report covers all known allegations, and was not confined to the time frames applied in previous commissions of enquiry or review where cases from 1975 onwards were reviewed. This audit is a chronological review up November 30th, 2011.
The audit identified a number of issues of historical poor practice in the Dioceses similar to other reports including;
Poor management and record keeping in some instances
Enquiries where there was a reasonable concern regarding an allegation of sexual abuse, which were protracted or inconclusive
Failure to take precautions in relation to known offenders
Lack of recognition of abuse as a serious criminal offence
A desire to protect reputation without recognising the paramount need to protect children
Removal of priests from parishes but not from direct contact with children, failure to understand the psychological damage resulting from abuse
Failure to educate priests about the impact of abuse and also considerations of Canon and Civil Law.
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