Madam, – The article by Jacky Jones (HEALTHplus, May 31st) which likened the behaviour of banks to the church’s attitudes to sex crimes conveyed an unfair impression of the real situation regarding the safeguarding of children in the Catholic Church in Ireland.
First, the church in Ireland has sound safeguarding policies in place which compare favourably to any others in use in these islands or internationally. Indeed, they are at least as robust as the “Children First” guidelines which Ms Jones seems to be urging the Government to turn into legislation. Second, while we did mention the lack of speed with which accusations were reported to us, it has been confirmed to us that all of the new cases that came to light in the period covered by our annual report have been made known to the relevant authorities in a timely fashion. Third, all parishes on the island have safeguarding structures in place.
Those structures are typically staffed by lay volunteers as confirmed in our annual report. This, augmented by the comprehensive training programme which our national office oversees, demonstrates that substantial progress has been made on the ground to equip the church to safeguard children properly.
None of these developments would have been possible without the support of the hierarchy. – Yours, etc,