IRELAND
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin
The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland has said the Archdiocese of Dublin is to be commended for the “rational, comprehensive and integrated child safeguarding system it has developed”. The NBSCCCI review of safeguarding and child protection practice, published today, praised those working in the area of child safeguarding in the Dublin Diocese saying, “their combined achievements in turning around a shocking and grievous situation is remarkable”.
Welcoming publication of the review, Director of Safeguarding, Mr Andrew Fagan said the Diocese is fully committed to implementing the six recommendations for improvement from the National Board. He added there was never room for complacency and he encouraged anyone affected by abuse, who had not yet come forward, to try and do so and get the help and support they may need. He said everyone on his team knew from past experience that days like today, when there is much public discussion on the issue of abuse, are particularly painful for people who have suffered.
The extensive review by the NBSCCCI brings to eight the number of inspections and investigations into child protection practice by Church and State agencies in the Archdiocese of Dublin over the past number of years. Others include the Murphy Report, a HSE Audit, three Garda inspections, the Apostolic Visitation and an internally commissioned audit.
The Archdiocese met or partially met all criteria by the NBSCCCI Safeguarding practice. The National Board made a number of recommendations for improvement, among them, that the Diocese look at increasing awareness of safe practice where on-line communications and social media are concerned, and also that it look for regular feedback from parents and parishioners as to how safeguarding procedures operate in parishes.
Mr Fagan said that they were especially pleased with the NBSCCCI view of diocesan reporting and recording structures. Referring to the Diocesan policy ‘Procedure for Dealing with Allegations of Child Abuse against Priests of the Diocese’ the Board said it was “an exemplar of its type”, giving “unequivocal commitment to report to and cooperate with the two statutory authorities, An Garda Siochana and the HSE / Child and Family Agency (Tusla)”.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.