State fears compromising prosecutions by publishing Dublin archdiocese report in full
John Downes, News Investigations Correspondent
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin: says Dublin diocesan report will ‘shock us all’
The government may decide not to publish in full the names of priests identified in the report of the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation, even where they have been convicted of abusing children.
Unlike the landmark Ryan commission report into abuse at the state’s industrial schools, which decided controversially to give anonymity to every person it identified, the forthcoming report will name priests who have been convicted of abuse.
It has examined a representative sample of 46 out of a total of 102 priests who were suspected of abusing children in the Dublin diocese between 1974 and 2004.
But justice minister Dermot Ahern will have to seek his own legal advice about whether all of those identified in the report can be named in any version of the report to be published by him.
Both the commission and the government are concerned that the naming of individuals might hinder any current or future prosecutions.
As a result, the commission is understood to be considering leaving out the name of at least one priest which it had intended to identify for this very reason, although no decision has yet been made on this.
Ahern, who had been expected to receive a copy of the report this week, now appears unlikely to receive it until early next week.
This is because the commission is awaiting final responses from several people identified in the report, with a deadline for receipt of these set for the middle of next week.
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