The Ferns inquiry came close to collapse in September when it realised that documents concerning allegations of abuse against a total of 10 priests in Ferns diocesan personnel files had not been made available to it.
In mid-July the inquiry was made aware by the One in Four group of allegations by "Pamela" of abuse by Fr Iota and Fr Kappa.
The inquiry had not been aware of these allegations and contacted the diocese. At the end of July the diocese supplied the inquiry with files concerning Fr Iota and Fr Kappa in Pamela's case, and another document relating to allegations by Fr Iota of abuse by Fr Lamda (deceased) when he (Fr Iota) was a child.
It was then agreed by the inquiry team and the diocese that a trawl of personnel files there was necessary. It uncovered documents concerning allegations against a further eight priests, which were made available to the inquiry "subsequent to 31 August", as it is put in the appendix to the Ferns Report.
For the two years since the inquiry began in September 2003, which itself followed an investigation by senior counsel George Birmingham that began in April 2002, both Mr Birmingham and the inquiry team believed the diocese had made available all relevant files where concerns about allegations of abuse by Ferns priests were concerned.
It is understood the inquiry team, chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy, seriously considered ending their investigation, even though a draft report of the inquiry findings and recommendations had been completed. It would have meant a statutory inquiry being set up and the investigation process beginning again.
A plenary hearing of the inquiry took place on September 2nd to consider the situation, at which the diocese was represented by counsel and a solicitor.
Following deliberation, the inquiry team eventually decided the omission of the new documents "was due to a regrettable error on the part of the diocese and did not constitute the withholding of co-operation on its part". It accepted "the unequivocal assurance" of Ferns Apostolic Administrator Bishop Eamonn Walsh that all relevant documentation had by then been furnished to the inquiry.
It decided that some of the latest documents, relating to three of the eight priests, were not relevant to the inquiry. It did not fully investigate documents relating to the remaining five priests and that "the incorporation in the [ Ferns] report of the findings of the inquiry in relation thereto would involve an unacceptable delay." The five new cases were not investigated by the inquiry but a summary of each was set out in an appendix.
A spokesman for Ferns diocese said last night it was satisfied the Ferns inquiry had accepted its bone fides where the new documents were concerned.
Colm O'Gorman, director of the One in Four group, said it was "incredible, in the literal sense of the word" that files detailing concerns involving 10 priests existed in diocesan files and were not provided by Bishop Eamonn Walsh to the inquiry.
"The most benign explanation points to an extraordinary level of incompetence on the part of both the diocese and Bishop Eamonn Walsh, who we are expected to believe did not understand the significance of those files that explicitly carried allegations or concerns in relation to three priests."
In 2002 he had been told Ferns diocese "had agreed to hand over all files to George Birmingham so he could decide which were relevant. It is difficult not to interpret the omission of such a high number of files as sinister," he said.
At a meeting in Maynooth yesterday, held to consider the Ferns report, the Irish Episcopal Conference agreed "to respond rapidly and positively" to proposals outlined in correspondence from Minister of State for Children Brian Lenihan last week. They apologised to all those hurt at the hands of abusers in the church.