A child abuse survivor and former member of the Catholic Church's child protection working group has said that aspects of the child protection policies published today by the Church contained big changes from the version she had played a part in writing.
Speaking on RTE's Six One News, Marie Collins said the original document said that the Director of Child Protection would immediately report to the State authorities any allegation against a church employee, and everything else would follow that. This had totally changed in the final document, she said.
But responding to the claims, Maureen Lynott, the chairperson of the working group, said she was very satisified the policies met and exceeded national guidelines contained in the document, Children First. Also speaking on RTÉ's Six One News, she said the Church's document was both necessary and welcome.
She said she did not agree that there was a major difference in the wording in the final draft. And she defended the decision to allow the Director of Child Protection to decide whether reasonable grounds had been met to allow an allegation of abuse be forwarded to the State authorities.
She said this approach was comparable to that contained in Children First and was a reasonable threshold by which to work. She denied it was an escape clause for the Church, and said the policies would hold the Church to higher standards of accountability.
Earlier, the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Brian Lenihan, welcomed the new policies.
Brian Lenihan described the policies as a step in the right direction. He added that his officials will now review the guidelines and if there is any problem they will get back to the bishops.
The ISPCC has also welcomed the new guidelines. The child protection society described the new guidelines as a progressive statement of the church's commitment to nurturing and protecting children.
However, the victim support group, One in Four, has criticised the policies. One in Four’s director Colm O'Gorman said they fall short of the recommendations laid out in the Ferns report earlier this year. He also said they were a rehash of earlier guidelines.
Under the new system a new national board for child protection will be established. The new national board will be made up of parents and professionals from the childcare, psychology, legal, business and education sectors.
It will have overall responsibility for ensuring the guidelines are implemented. The board is to be chaired by the former Attorney General and Supreme Court Judge, Mr Justice Anthony Hederman.
