The Birmingham inquiry into sex-abuse cases in Wexford will have access to whatever files it needs, the bishop appointed to run the Ferns diocese promised yesterday,
Bishop Éamonn Walsh also announced that an advisory committee of parents, professionals and victims is to be set up in the diocese to examine known abuse cases and recommend appropriate action.
He also stressed that no files relating to abuse cases in the diocese had been destroyed. "People have some notion that there was a big bonfire or something like that. No, the files were there, and whatever is within them to bring out the truth that we need to find will be brought out."
Speaking at a press conference in Gorey, the Bishop said he had not yet looked at the files, but they were "certainly not ceiling-high" as had been suggested. He would ensure that all of the information that was "relevant and necessary to get to the determination of the complete truth" would be made available to Mr George Birmingham SC and any subsequent inquiry.
Mr Birmingham was appointed by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, last week to examine what type of inquiry should be conducted into how the cases of sexual abuse by priests in the Ferns diocese were handled by the Catholic Church and other agencies.
Bishop Walsh agreed with a suggestion that it was a matter for Mr Birmingham, and not himself or anyone else, to decide what files were relevant.
He had already spoken to Mr Birmingham, who had acknowledged that there might be information that was irrelevant to the inquiry and was confidential to the people who had supplied it. He would let Mr Birmingham be the arbiter as to what the ground rules would be.
Asked if this meant that Mr Birmingham would have free access to the files, he replied: "George Birmingham will have free access to whatever he determines that he needs."
He added that people had "a notion" that there was a box of files and it was a case of saying "Here's the box", but it was not that simple. "There may be information in it that has nothing to do with the offence but yet may be totally confidential to the individual," he said.
The advisory committee he was setting up would include professional people such as psychologists and sociologists and would look at all the cases of abuse that had been processed, including those that had been rejected by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Under the existing guidelines, when a complaint of abuse was made about a priest, an advisory panel would make a recommendation to the local bishop on what should happen to the individual.
That would take place in any event, but he wanted to bring together people who had worked on such panels in other dioceses.
"It's like getting a second opinion, getting a consultative group to pass judgment on what should happen, and I will follow their recommendations. It's a double check, and I will have that in place well before George Birmingham has considered his work."
The Bishop also said he would write to the victims of Father Sean Fortune who had participated in the BBC Correspondent documentary to see if they wished to meet him.
