Child sex abuse commission to halt investigations

The independent Commission into the handling of child sex abuse allegations by the Catholic Church in Ireland is to cease its investigations, the chairperson, former District Court judge, Ms Gillian Hussey said today.

Judge Hussey said the Commission had taken this decision following the pledge by Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell to introduce legislation for a new inquiry procedure. This would enable a detailed and focused investigation into how Church authorities dealt with allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy, the judge said.

"We have advised the Church authorities that, as the proposed national inquiry would appear to cover, largely, the same ground which the Commission had intended to cover, it would not make sense from the Commission's perspective to continue as originally envisaged," she said.

She said the most important issue was not who carries out the investigation but that it would ensure full accountability and assist the closure process for those who suffered.

The Catholic Church Commission on Child Sex Abuse was established by the Irish Bishops' Conference, the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) and the Irish Missionary Union (IMU) in June of this year.

Its terms of reference included an examination of what each bishop and relevant religious superior knew about complaints of child sexual abuse against diocesan priests and religious, respectively, and identify the steps taken by each in response to that knowledge.

It had also planned to quantify the extent of child sexual abuse by priests and religious.

The Commission has been due to present an interim report in February 2003, and its final report in February 2004.

She said the Commission encouraged those involved to quickly finalise the scope of the new inquiry and to put the necessary legislation and structures in place.