Ireland Online
November 11, 2009
http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/ireland/sex-abuse-experts-hit-out-at-report-delay-433926.html
Two leading sex abuse support groups tonight demanded immediate explanations for delays in publishing the damning report on the Dublin Archdiocese.
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The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and One in Four said it was totally unacceptable victims and their families should be made to wait without further information.
There are also fears the report could be published just ahead of Christmas when support services are traditionally at their most stretched.
Legal arguments have delayed the report for weeks with the state's top lawyers warning it may prejudice ongoing and future trials.
Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop, chief executive DRCC, said delays without information cannot be excused.
"To be given some explanation as to why there is this continued delay, would at least be courteous, and would go some way towards alleviating the unnecessary distress that victims are having to endure as a result of being left in the dark," she said.
"This current situation is inexcusable."
Up to 450 people have made abuse allegations against former priests in the diocese since 1940.
The damning report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Dublin Archdiocese has examined allegations against a sample 46 priests.
Maeve Lewis, executive director of One in Four, said there were fears the report would be published near Christmas, warning it was the most distressing time of year for victims.
"Christmas is a very emotive time of year. In our experience it is particularly distressing for our clients," Ms Lewis said.
One in Four warned some support services may not be fully operational and support will not be available to survivors during the holidays.
The High Court has already ruled one chapter cannot be published while other references have to be censored throughout.
But the report was sent back on October 21 for the court to rule on other concerns following advice from the Attorney General and Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Speculation has since mounted that other chapters of the report may not be published for years as prosecutions are ongoing.
The groups said they accept the need to protect criminal proceedings but warned piecemeal publication will seriously compromise the inquiry's integrity.
Ms Lewis said: "There is intense speculation that publication of sections concerning the way in which investigations into allegations against priests were carried out by gardaí may be delayed indefinitely.
"This will seriously undermine the value of the report. It may also mean that the full story of how the sexual abuse of children in the Archdiocese was allowed to continue will remain untold.
"This has serious implications for future child protection policy and practice."
It will be the second devastating scandal to rock the Church in Ireland this year after the Ryan report laid bare the physically and psychologically abusive regimes operated by religious orders in church and state-run institutions.
The report will look the handling of allegations by 19 clerics in the Catholic hierarchy, including Cardinal Desmond Connell who last year dropped a potentially embarrassing court challenge to stop the Dublin Commission getting access to 5,586 secret Church files.
Seven of the bishops who served in Dublin are dead.
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