The Minister for Justice has announced that he will assign an additional Chief Superintendent and extra Gardaí to the Sexual Assault Unit to investigate allegations of clerical sexual abuse.
Mr Michael McDowell also said in the Dáil this afternoon he would be looking at individual cases to see whether further lines of inquiry could lead to the preferring of criminal charges against perpetrators.
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In addition, he said, any other allegations which are made in the coming months would also be investigated.
Mr McDowell met representatives of One in Four - the group which represents victims - earlier this afternoon.
Mr Paul McSharry, a spokesman for the group, told ireland.comhe was "very encouraged" by the announcement.
Mr McDowell said it would require time to draw-up the terms of reference of any inquiry into the allegations, and that the Government and people involved, should avoid knee-jerk reactions to recent revelations.
"Some form of State inquiry will be held," the Minister said. "I know that all members of the House will want to avoid knee-jerk reactions and will be prepared to give the Government the time that is necessary to reflect on the highly complex issues which arise"
"I know we can all agree that this is the least we owe to those . . .who suffered, often in silence and desperation, while terrible wrongs were done to them."
Earlier today, McDowell criticised an interpretation of Catholic Church law authorised by Cardinal Desmond Connell, which discouraged bishops from threatening paedophile priests with dismissal.
The Minister said he found elements of Canon Law disturbing. He referred to certain passages in a book by Monsignor Gerard Sheedy entitled The Canon Law, letter and spiritpublished in 1995, which he said had the approval of Cardinal Connell.
He added that the first responsibility of any person living in the state no matter what their background was to civil, rather than canon law.
In reaction the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, said he has no difficulty in where his responsibility would lie if it came to a conflict between Canon law and the civil laws of the land, according to reports on RTÉ's Five-Seven Liveprgromme today.
Speaking in Roscrea, he said it would very definitely lie with the laws of the land, adding that he believed his fellow bishops would agree.
The Cabinet yesterday agreed to the establishment of a non-statutory inquiry into the handling of child sex abuse in the Diocese of Ferns.
Victims of abuse in this diocese met the Minister for Health and Children Mr Martin this morning to discuss the terms of reference for the new inquiry.