THE HSE is to write to each bishop and provincial of a religious order in the State requesting further information, in addition to the statistical details already supplied by them as part of the current audit of child protection practices in Catholic dioceses and religious congregations.
It is hoped the audit will be completed by December 22nd next. However, as a number of dioceses had already asked to resubmit their questionnaire responses, this may be delayed.
The request for further information from bishops and provincials follows an intervention by Phil Garland, the HSE’s newly appointed assistant national director for children and family services.
Until last month he had been director of child protection in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese and was praised for his work there in the Dublin diocesan report, published last week.
Mr Garland said that to verify data already provided by dioceses and congregations, HSE childcare managers should request additional information from them.
This included the names of the complainant and the person against whom the complaint was made; where each allegation in the audit return was concerned; the name and location where the matter was reported to the HSE and the Garda, and the date that the report was made.
When this information is supplied, a HSE childcare manager will check each file to ensure the matter has been dealt with appropriately. A member of the HSE’s national children and families social services team will then liaise with gardaí to ensure all allegations referred to in the audit have been reported to them.
Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews, who supported this proposal, said it would enable the HSE to submit a more detailed and comprehensive report to him.
He also noted that “the national audit has been criticised as a statistical exercise of little, if any, use”. He continued: “It should be remembered that the need for such an audit arose out of the recommendations contained in the Ferns report.”
Meanwhile, members of the family of a deceased Limerick man who alleged abuse have called for the remit of the Dublin commission of investigation to be extended to include the Catholic diocese of Limerick.
Peter McCloskey (37), took his own life on April 1st, 2006, two days after a difficult meeting with representatives of Limerick diocese held to discuss his complaint of abuse.
He alleged that Fr Denis Daly, a priest ordained for Sydney but who served in Limerick from 1978 until his death in 1987, abused him in 1980/81. Last night his mother Mary, father Aidan, sister Aida and brother Joseph issued a statement saying the Dublin report findings “resonated deeply within our family”.
They continued: “The cover-up is endemic and countrywide in the Catholic Church. We are brokenhearted in the wake of so much human suffering.”
What the Dublin diocesan report uncovered calls for the commission “to audit the tenure of Dr Donal Murray and the Limerick diocese in its totality. It is the least that Peter is owed by the church, which so terribly failed him”, they said.
In Dublin, abuse survivor Andrew Madden has called in a letter to today’s The Irish Times for the resignations of five serving bishops named in the Dublin report.
They are Bishop Donal Murray, Bishop Jim Moriarty, Bishop Martin Drennan, Bishop Éamonn Walsh and Bishop Ray Field.