The Catholic Church in Ireland has moved a step closer towards having in place guidelines on child-protection policy.
At a meeting yesterday its representatives agreed that professional directors of child protection, rather than a bishop or religious superior, should have responsibility for receiving and reporting allegations of abuse to the civil authorities. Meanwhile it will remain the responsibility of the bishop/superior to suspend/stand down the accused priest or religious, on consideration of recommendations of the director of child protection.
It was agreed also that the church would set up a national board on child protection which will have responsibility for the implementation of its policy as well as for auditing and publishing reports on its work.
It will further decide how many directors of child protection there will be on the island and the areas for which they will be responsible.
Yesterday's meeting was attended by the Bishop of Limerick, Most Rev Donal Murray, representing the Irish Bishops' Conference, Sister Helena O'Donoghue, representing the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI), and Father Tommy Murphy, of the Irish Missionary Union (IMU).
They met with Ms Maureen Lynott, accompanied by Mr Ger Crowley and Mr Kevin McCoy, all members of the working group on child protection. Set up by the church in May 2003 "to develop a comprehensive and integrated child protection policy for the Irish Catholic Church", it was chaired by Ms Lynott, who previously headed the body which prepared the State's "duty of care" guidelines for child protection.
The working group disbanded last September following a heated row with church representatives over whether professionals or church leaders should have the final decision on how sex-abuse complaints are handled. Church representatives believed such control should rest with church leaders.