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	Mcdowell Queries Mandatory Abuse Reporting By Carol Coulter and Steven Carroll Irish Times September 11, 2011 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0910/1224303849270.html FORMER MINISTER for justice and attorney general Michael McDowell has questioned the Government’s proposals on mandatory reporting of child sex abuse. Responding to comments made yesterday by Minister for Justice Alan Shatter, he said the remarks underlined the necessity to be clear what the proposed legislation meant, particularly in relation to the defence of “reasonable excuse”. Mr Shatter had said it would be up to the courts to decide whether this would apply in a case where a priest had learned of an incidence of child sex abuse in confession. “Is it a subjective or an objective test?” Mr McDowell asked. “Would a parental relationship be relevant? If a mother discovered her 17-year-old son had been carrying on with a 15-year-old girl, would she be obliged to report him to the gardai? “Is respecting confidentiality a ‘reasonable excuse’? It seems strange to legislate without the ordinary citizen being aware of the extent of his or her obligation,” Mr McDowell said. Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland, Mr Shatter said work on legislation relating to the disclosure of information about child abuse was continuing. Asked whether priests would be expected to pass on information heard about child abuse in the confessional, he said the Constitution protected freedom of religion, but had clauses on public order and morality. He said it was a “strange concept of morality” for a State to regard it as appropriate that information about child abuse could be concealed. He pointed to lawyers and accountants who had privileged relationships with clients, but were obliged to disclose incidents of money laundering. “I don’t think anyone believes it is appropriate that we have a situation where a priest is told by an individual, be it in confession or not, that they have abused children – that the matter remain private,” he said. “Not only is the individual not prosecuted for the abuse of the child of which the priest has become aware, but that individual is left to abuse other children . . .” he added. Mr Shatter defended Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s criticisms of the Vatican following the Cloyne report, saying the Holy See had failed to provide information to the Murphy commission, and used a diplomatic ploy for its stance. Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin had called on Mr Kenny to explain an allegation that “the Holy See attempted to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign democratic republic as little as three years ago”. Dr Martin said the Murphy report showed no evidence of the Vatican trying to frustrate the inquiry, and the Holy See could find no evidence to substantiate Mr Kenny’s allegation. Mr Shatter said the Vatican failed to co-operate with the Murphy commission. “It failed to provide it with information readily available to it, failed to furnish information it had available to it with regard to the abuse of children in both the Dublin diocese and subsequently the Cloyne diocese,” he said. A request for information was made directly to the Vatican by the Murphy commission, he said, but it used a “diplomatic ploy” of refusing to deal with it by asking that the request come through the Department of Foreign Affairs. Mr Kenny said he expected all faith organisations to work with the Government as it set out to put in place legislative steps to safeguard children. “I expect all faith organisations to work with the Government as we set out on implementing a range of legislative measures here which will ensure that the question of reporting, the question of the delivery of childcare services and the issue of the protection of our children is seen to be what it should be, of a world-class standard, and that we put in place for the future a system where the children of this nation are properly protected,” he said. The Taoiseach was speaking at the opening of a new science block at UCD.
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