Only 2.5% of sex abuse claims made against priests in Ireland since 1941 resulted in criminal convictions, it has emerged.

Newly-released reports by the Catholic Church’s child protection watchdog revealed 325 allegations were made against 141 priests or brothers in the past seven decades.

Of those, only eight ended with a conviction.

Teresa Devlin, chief executive of The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church, said: “Overall there is considerable improvement in safeguarding practice evidenced in these reports”.

“The history is undeniable, that once again a significant number of children were abused in the care of
religious institutions.”

The latest reviews cover eight male orders including the Jesuits, Rosminians, and Capuchins, as well as 35 female orders. The reports state the Jesuit Order failed to tell gardai about at least 22 claims of sex abuse in the past four decades.

A total of 79 allegations were made against 36 Jesuits, none of them resulting in convictions.

However, Ms Devlin said these particular cases did not meet the criteria for reporting. The Rosminian Order was criticised for delays in making written reports of allegations of child sex abuse to the authorities until recently.

Both the Jesuits and Rosminians have apologised to those abused in their care.

The Jesuit Order said in a statement: “One allegation is one too many, and words of apology can sound so inadequate in face of the heinous crime of child abuse.

“We wish to unreservedly apologise to any person who has been abused under our care.

“It is a cause of great sadness to us that anybody was ever abused by a Jesuit.”