In a letter dated March 10th, 2003, and sent to Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times, Mr Tom Boland, a senior official in the Department of Education and Science, wrote:
Bishop Eamonn Walsh has drawn my attention to your article on Saturday last "Bishops sought altar boy claims deal". Bishop Walsh is concerned that the article creates an impression that the Catholic bishops in discussions with this Department were concerned exclusively or primarily about potential claims of abuse by former altar boys.
It is of course the case that the article itself, as opposed to the headline, refers to "altar boys" as merely examples of possible wider claims. Nevertheless, I appreciate Bishop Walsh's concern.
Bishop Walsh appears to be of the opinion that the document which is quoted came from the Department of Education and Science and therefore we should put the record straight.
I have not in fact been able to locate such a document in our records, but I may have overlooked it.
In any case, since it is clear that an official document of some kind is being quoted and the discussions which are referred to are those which I participated in I think it appropriate, in the interests of fairness, that I clarify the situation as I see it.
I met Bishop Walsh on a couple of occasions (two or three if my memory serves me) in the context of consultations on the Residential Institutions Redress Bill. You will recall that this is the legislation which provides for a compensation scheme for victims of abuse in childhood.
At those meetings the case was put on behalf of the Catholic bishops that if the State was proposing to compensate victims of abuse in childhood, then the scheme should be extended beyond merely residential schools.
In particular, I recall that the case was strongly put that people who as children suffered abuse in day schools should also be included in any scheme in the interests of justice and fairness.
In the circumstances it would be unfair to characterise the bishops' position as one predominantly concerned with "altar boy claims".
Indeed, I don't think that reference was ever made to claims of this kind in particular in the discussions.
I am copying this letter to Bishop Walsh.
Yours sincerely,
Thomas Boland.
Bishop Eamonn Walsh is an auxiliary bishop in Dublin and Apostolic Administrator to Ferns diocese.
Up to his appointment to Ferns last year he was chairman of the Bishops' Committee on Child Abuse and it was in that capacity he met Mr Boland.