The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) has called on the Catholic Church to introduce vetting procedures for any cleric that is directly involved with children.
It is calling for the Church to have all its personnel vetted by the Gardaí before placing them in positions of working with children, and to establish an internal monitoring system.
This would ensure, the ISPCC said, that those who have been proven to be a risk to children, but who have not had a criminal conviction will be monitored to ensure they do not have access to children.
Mr Paul Gilligan, chief executive of the ISPCC, told ireland.com, it was not making the request for itself, but for the Irish public who needed assurances that no further clerical sex abuse of children would happen in the future.
He also called on the Church to immediately remove any clerics who are dealing with children and against whom there were allegations of abuse from their position until such a time as the allegations were upheld or disproved.
"Its not for the ISPCC to call on the Church to do anything," Mr Gilligan said.
"But we are asking that the Church - in the interests of its future role in society - to assure the general public that to [the Church's]knowledge no person who is suspected of being a risk to children is involved in activities with children.
"I think if you were to ask any working priest in Ireland they would agree with that."
Mr Gilligan added that he felt a system of vetting personnel who work with children, such as the system that exists in Britain or Northern Ireland, should be introduced here.
In addition, he called for the Church to introduce the Children First Guidelines, which outline procedures to be followed where there is a suspicion, allegations or disclosure of child abuse.
"The ISPCC believes that it is imperative that the Catholic Church seeks to re-establish the trust of the public regarding their commitment to child protection," he said.
Meanwhile, the Garda Commissioner has named the Garda who will head up the investigation into clerical sex abuse, the establishment of which the Minister of Justice, Mr Michael McDowell, announced yesterday following a meeting with representatives of the victims of sexual abuse.
The investigation team is being led by Detective Chief Superintendent Sean Camon, the Head of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
The team will consist of 20 detectives and examine all previous cases, investigations and reports of clerical child sexual abuse as well as investigating new allegations that have yet to come to light.