LATE LAST night the Diocese of Cloyne's office issued a statement, following a series of questions sent by The Irish Timesyesterday evening regarding Bishop Magee's handling of a complaint of sex abuse in 2005.
A Diocese of Cloyne spokesman said that it was not possible to forward the queries to Bishop Magee in the time afforded but the administrator of the diocese, Archbishop Dermot Clifford had issued a statement in response.
The following is the statement in full:
“The Diocese of Cloyne operates its child protection system in full conformity with State and church guidelines. It engages very actively with the gardaí and HSE in ensuring the highest level of inter-agency co-operation and sharing of information.
“Our motivation is to ensure that all information known to the diocese is available in the service of the safety and wellbeing of children. The gardaí and HSE are accorded such access to diocesan records relating to child protection issues as is identified by them as relevant and necessary to their respective statutory functions.
Archbishop Clifford went on to say that the diocese does not comment on particular investigations having regard to the importance of preserving due process of law.