Mr Colm O'Gorman, director of the One in Four support group for people who have been sexually abused, said yesterday it was "essential" there be a criminal investigation into the handling of complaints of clerical child sex abuse in the Dublin archdiocese.
He also said a "standing commissioner" with statutory powers [similar to those which apply to a commissioner in company law] may be the best way forward when it came to the State addressing the issue.
Mr O'Gorman was speaking at a press conference attended by three other abuse victims and following a meeting with the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell. Present were: Mr Andrew Madden, who had been abused by Father Ivan Payne in Dublin; Ms Marie Collins, who had been abused by Father Paul McGennis in Dublin; and Mr Ken Reilly, who had been abused by Father Tony Walsh in Dublin. Mr O'Gorman had been abused by Father Sean Fortune in the Ferns diocese.
The meeting with Mr McDowell was attended by Mr O'Gorman and Mr Madden. It had been "very, very encouraging", Mr O'Gorman said. " We are certainly convinced of his determination," he said.
He, One in Four, and the other victims were "determined to work closely with the Government on the matter", he added.
Mr Madden said he was very encouraged by what he had heard at the meeting and appreciated "a bit more" the hugely complex issues involved where a Garda investigation was concerned.
But he was also very encouraged that the gardaí were addressing what they could or could not do in the circumstances. Ms Collins said she was prepared personally to make a complaint against the Dublin archdiocese if that was needed to allow a Garda investigation. She "definitely" would like an inquiry. Concurring, Mr Reilly said that last April he had requested the Chancellor of the Dublin archdiocese, Monsignor John Dolan, to hand over all files relating to his case to the Garda, but this had not hapened. Mr O'Gorman welcomed the non-statutory inquiry into Ferns diocese, announced by the Taoiseach on Tuesday.
The co-operation of Bishop Eamonn Walsh and the Church authorities there with the Birmingham investigation, which led to the inquiry, "has to be respected. None of us here are Church-bashers", he said.
But, he noted, "there is no indication of such co-operation from the archdiocese". It was one reason why he felt extending the Ferns inquiry to include Dublin would not be adequate.
A report in yesteday's paper said the Hussey Commission into how complaints of clerical child sex abuse were handled by the Church in Ireland would name perpetrators of abuse in its report. This will be done where there are court convictions recorded.
The names of other perpetrators which come to the commission's attention will be reported to the gardaí.
