Bishop of Clonfert John Kirby has denied being aware since the mid-1990s that a priest he moved following allegations of child sex abuse continued to abuse children in his new parish.
The Irish Times reported today that a priest sentenced in 1994 to 10 years imprisonment for the sexual abuse of a boy told Bishop Kirby in the mid-1990s that he had abused 17 children in the diocese.
Twice last month, Bishop Kirby asserted that the priest in question did not abuse children in the parish to which he moved him.
In 1990, when the priest, known as Priest A, admitted to Bishop Kirby he had abused the boy concerned, he was moved to another parish where he abused more children.
In a statement responding to today's article, Bishop Kirby said: "The claim by The Irish Times today that I had knowledge or suspicion that Priest A continued to abuse children subsequent to my learning of his conduct in October 1990, and that such abuse occurred in the parishes of Kiltormer and Creagh, Diocese of Clonfert, is incorrect.
"I am not aware of an acknowledgement by Priest A that he abused any child subsequent to October 1990, the date when I first learned of his sexual abuse of a child," the statement said.
Bishop Kirby said he was "not in receipt of any complaint" and had "neither knowledge nor suspicion that Priest A abused a child in either of the parishes of Kiltormer or Creagh subsequent to October 1990".
It is understood that Priest A disclosed all these details to Bishop Kirby when the latter visited him during his jail sentence at Arbour Hill between 1994 and 1998.
The Irish Times has learned that the man referred to as Priest A in the National Board for Safeguarding Children's review of Clonfert abused a total of 17 victims in the diocese.
Nine of these were in Kiltormer parish, from where he was removed by Bishop Kirby when it emerged in 1990 he had abused a child there. He was then moved to Creagh parish where, it is believed, he claimed to have abused five more children.
Priest A also said he abused a further two children in Portumna and one other in the diocese.
It is understood that Priest A disclosed all these details to Bishop Kirby, as well as to statutory authorities, while serving his prison sentence in Arbour Hill.
In 1994 Priest A was sentenced to 10 years, with five suspended as he pleaded guilty. He was in prison until 1998.
Priest A gave the 17 names to Bishop Kirby after the bishop had been approached by a mother in the diocese who was anxious to know whether her son had been abused by Priest A. Bishop Kirby visited Priest A at Arbour Hill to secure the list of victims. It did not include the woman's son.