MINISTER FOR Justice Alan Shatter has welcomed the decision of the High Court to allow the publication of the report of the Cloyne investigation, subject to the deletion of certain references.
He said he, along with the Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald, would make arrangements for the publication of the report as soon as practicable. This would follow the parties involved agreeing what deletions were necessary to give effect to the judge’s order.
The child abuse charity One in Four also welcomed the decision that the report be published, regretting that the publication of one chapter had to be postponed.
Its executive director, Maeve Lewis, said it accepted it was necessary to ensure that current criminal proceedings were not prejudiced. “It is important that the cases which come before the courts are not jeopardised in any way. However, we are concerned that the omission of certain sections may undermine the integrity of the report, and may also mean that the full picture of how children were endangered in the Cloyne diocese will not emerge.”
Connect, a counselling group set up at the request of survivor groups to provide a phone counselling and support service to people who have suffered abuse, said it would be open over the weekend for anyone distressed by the reporting of the Cloyne report.
The service provides counselling to survivors of abuse at freephone 1800 477 477 from the Republic of Ireland and 00800 477 477 77 from Northern Ireland.
Connect received a large volume of calls at the time of the launch of the Ryan and Murphy reports, it said in a statement.