A clash has emerged between Government officials and the Catholic bishops over what was said at a meeting in the Department of Education on February 1st, 2001.
A minute of the meeting has twice been challenged by a spokesman for the bishops.
The minute was identified yesterday as a Department of Finance document and described as "privileged" by the Department second secretary, Mr David Doyle.
When told by The Irish Times that the document's content had been challenged by the bishops, Mr Doyle replied "they weren't there" (at the meeting).
That meeting received a report from the Department of Education's secretary general, Mr John Dennehy.
He spoke on proposals for a State scheme to compensate abuse victims.
The minute recorded that he said: "The bishops want a wider scheme than what is proposed.
"It had been suggested that the scheme might be extended, e.g., to cover claims by altar boys against the clergy.
"It was agreed that this was out of the question. (Very few bishops are affected by the type of abuse under discussion at the meeting, as the congregations, not the dioceses, ran the great bulk of the institutions.)"
Following an article on the document, a spokesman for the bishops wrote in The Irish Times of March 18th, 2003: "There is certainly no evidence that the inclusion of altar boys in any compensation scheme was suggested, or indeed sought, by the bishops."
After further discussion of the document the bishops' spokesman wrote in this newspaper on October 24th, 2003: "As I stated explicitly in my letter to The Irish Times of March 18th, 2003, the Irish Catholic bishops never suggested nor sought the inclusion of claims by altar boys against clergy in the State's compensation scheme for victims of child abuse."