Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the position regarding the review of child protection practices across all Catholic Church dioceses; the numbers and names of those completed; the number and names of those underway; when she expects that the remaining reviews will get underway; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17282/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Two separate review processes are being undertaken in respect of child protection practices in the Catholic Church in Ireland. The HSE is involved in a two-phase audit exercise. The report of phase 1, covering safeguarding arrangements in twenty-four Catholic dioceses, was published in October, 2012. The second phase involves a review of safeguarding practice in respect of approximately 140 Religious Congregations/Orders. This element, which ran parallel with the diocesan audit, is taking longer to complete due to the high number of Congregations involved.

Separately the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC) is also working through a review process involving the dioceses and Religious Congregations. To date reports on ten dioceses and three Congregations have been published.

The publication of the HSE diocesan audit report represented the culmination of a long process of engagement between the HSE and the diocesan authorities, to establish the position with regard to the Catholic Church in terms of the safeguarding of children and on responding to allegations of child sexual abuse against members of the clergy. I welcomed the audit's finding that there has been a marked improvement in Church child protection practices in recent years, in particular since the Church’s new ‘Safeguarding Children’ standards were introduced in 2009. It is also encouraging that the HSE found that the practice of responding to immediate risk to children was found to be generally good and is given priority within the dioceses. The audit found that prompt action has been taken by Bishops to remove priests from ministry where allegations have been made.

While the audit highlighted recent improvements, it is clear that the focus must remain on addressing the need for ongoing improvements; in particular in those Dioceses identified by the audit as requiring further work. The report identified particular difficulties in categorising retrospective allegations with accuracy in terms of the time taken to report the allegations to the civil authorities. There were significant delays in reporting allegations to the civil authorities in the case of some of the dioceses. Also, in some instances dioceses had stated in their audit returns that they had reported all allegations promptly, but the HSE found that this was not the case.

The HSE audit recommended that the State “apply its resources to intervene and work with all dioceses in a systemic way to address the shortcomings outlined” and “to achieve closer monitoring by the State of dioceses”. In this context I had previously requested that the HSE's Children and Family Services engage on an ongoing basis with the NBSCCC on this issue. The purpose of this engagement is to ensure that the Church has in place all necessary structures and practices to safeguard children in line with the Children First National Guidance and the Church’s own guidelines. This engagement will continue to be prioritised within the new Child and Family Support Agency, with a particular focus on dioceses where shortfalls have been identified. Ensuring compliance with Children First will be a key priority for the new Agency.

The continuation by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church of its own review process into remaining dioceses and Religious Congregations, together with the HSE’s review of the Congregations, will provide further transparency in relation to current safeguarding arrangements within the Catholic Church. While there have been very notable improvements compared to historic practices that were entirely unacceptable, there is no room for complacency, as evidenced by the concerns I expressed about the outcome of the NBSCCC review of three Religious Congregations, published in September, 2012. For further details on its published reports and review plans I would direct the Deputy to the NBSCCC website - www.safeguarding.ie.

I have stressed to both the HSE and the NBSCCC the importance of bringing both review processes to conclusion as speedily as possible, so as to provide a complete picture of child protection practices and compliance by the Catholic Church.