The Child Abuse Commission: Legal advisers for the Christian Brothers have told the child abuse commission that they cannot meet a June deadline for replying to statements from 710 people alleging abuse by Christian Brothers.
Ms Mary Irvine SC, for the Christian Brothers, told the commission chairwoman, Ms Justice Laffoy, that her legal team was taken aback to receive a letter from the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse on February 26th, requesting that all outstanding replies be submitted by June 30th. Some 414 statements have now been delivered.
Ms Irvine said the commission had earlier requested that it receive an average of six statements a week, and the legal team was meeting this request. There has been no suggestion that this rate of response was unacceptable.
Of the 710 statements alleging abuse by Christian Brothers, 165 relate to an Artane school.
Ms Irvine said some statements were extremely complex and alleged abuse by more than one brother. Up to 16 brothers were named in some statements.
Each complaint had to be thoroughly investigated, and this was "an arduous task", Ms Irvine said. The Christian Brothers then had to sign off on the statements, and this was causing a bottleneck as the legal team was relying on a "very small group of very elderly brothers" who were present at the times in question to do this.
Mr Frank Clarke SC, for the commission, said the commission could not proceed with this part of its investigation until it had received replies to the statements of complaint submitted by about 1,700 people.
Ms Justice Laffoy said she would consider the application and would post the commission's decision on its website (www.childabusecommission.ie)
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