A nationwide publicity campaign on child sex abuse is to be launched by the Health Service Executive (HSE), the Minister of State for Children, Brian Lenihan, said yesterday.
He also announced a national review of compliance with the Children First guidelines on child protection.
The Minister has asked the HSE to convene meetings and maintain records of the Inter-Agency Review Group, recommended by the Ferns report. The group, which will deal with clerical child sex abuse allegations, will include church, Garda and health authority representatives.
The HSE has also been asked to contact every Catholic bishop in the State "as a matter of urgency" to monitor child protection measures in dioceses, ensuring compliance with the Ferns report recommendations, he said. He has written to the bishop "seeking confirmation, both collectively and individually, that the recommendations of the Ferns report will be implemented", he said.
Mr Lenihan was speaking in Dublin at the launch of the One in Four group's annual report for 2004. One in Four is a national agency which assists people sexually abused as children. The Government was "appalled, shocked and dismayed" at the extent of the allegations in the Ferns report, he said.
One in Four director Colm O'Gorman said that in 2004 the group had a significant increase in demand for its help. It delivered 3,440 one-to-one psychotherapy services to 235 clients, an increase of 61 per cent. A total 1,359 hours of group psychotherapy in 2004 represented an increase of 151 per cent, while the group's advocacy programme delivered support to 291 clients.
One in Four's website recorded 3.4 million hits in 2004.
Mr O'Gorman remarked on the high number of men seeking the group's help: 61 per cent of those in psychotherapy programmes are male, as are 55 per cent of those who accessed its advocacy programme. He felt the figures were relevant in the context of higher male suicide rates.
In an introduction to the annual report Mr O'Gorman refers to studies which show suicide rates among sexually abused boys is between 1½ and 14 times higher than among non-abused counterparts. Another study showed that 20 per cent of rape victims had attempted suicide, he said. Marie Collins, who was abused by a Dublin priest, asked Mr Lenihan why, three years after it was promised, the inquiry into how clerical child sex abuse allegations had been handled in the Dublin archdiocese had still not begun.
She said that in February 2004 she, Mr O'Gorman and Andrew Madden (who was abused by Fr Ivan Payne) were told by the Minister for Justice that the inquiry would be operating by October 2004. "This delay means just more suffering," she said. Mr Lenihan said final proposals concerning the inquiry would be before the Government within two weeks.
The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has directed that a Ferns priest, against whom there have been allegations of child sex abuse, must face an ecclesiastical court. It will sit in Ferns diocese and decide on an appropriate sanction for the priest, who is not in active ministry, under canon law. Files relating to the case were sent to the DPP with no charges resulting.