Gardai have interviewed an elderly Brother of Charity about a number of sex-abuse allegations at two residential homes for young boys with learning difficulties during the 1950s and 1960s.
The retired brother returned from Britain to meet gardai investigating allegations of abuse at the Brothers of Charity in Lota, on the outskirts of Cork city.
Three men, now in their 40s and 50s, claim to have been seriously sexually abused by the brother while in their early teens and resident in Lota in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
One man has alleged that the brother used to abuse him while cleaning baths. He also claims the brother raped him in a dormitory which he supervised.
Gardai have interviewed the brother and are now carrying out further inquiries before preparing a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
At Mill Street, they questioned the man after receiving six complaints of serious sexual abuse by the brother, and a file has been sent to the DPP.
The questioning of the brother about the Lota abuse is the latest development in a four-year Garda investigation into a sex-abuse scandal at the Cork home in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
The investigation began following a single complaint in 1995, and one retired brother has been brought before the courts and prosecuted.
In December 1996 Brother Eunan (82), alias James Redmond, admitted abusing boys in dormitories at Lota over a 20-year period between 1959 and 1979.
Brother Eunan pleaded guilty at Riverstown District Court to four counts of indecent assault and was sent forward for sentence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in February 1997.
Meanwhile, gardai in Galway are conducting inquiries following allegations of sex abuse against eight and nine-year-old boys at a Co Galway residential home between 1966 and 1969.