The Catholic Education Partnership – on behalf of the entire Catholic education community across Ireland today – wishes to acknowledge the significance of this report, the grave harm caused to survivors and their families, and those who suffered but are no longer with us.
The Catholic Education Partnership wishes to publicly commit the Catholic education sector to fully cooperate with the Commission of Inquiry when the Government publishes its terms of reference.
It is important to assure parents and students today that Catholic schools have robust child safeguarding procedures, most recently reviewed in 2023. The Catholic education sector is fully committed to maintaining effective child safeguarding and has always engaged positively with the Department of Education on the development, review and improvement of these standards and will continue to do so. All Department of Education school inspections include a child safeguarding review.
Dr Helen Buckley, Child Protection Consultant, writes in her report contained in Appendix 4 of the Scoping Inquiry Report, that “the education sector has robust safeguarding procedures in place”, while noting that increased resources and more frequent auditing by the State are required. The Catholic Education Partnership fully supports this point.
It is painfully clear that children and the trust of their families were betrayed in the most devastating of ways. The Catholic Education Partnership commits to working with our stakeholders and the State to ensure that we uphold our moral, civic, and statutory responsibilities.
ENDS
- Towards Healing
Towards Healing, the counselling and support service for survivors of institutional, clerical and religious abuse, is funded by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland. In 2011 the service succeeded the Faoiseamh counselling service, which had been in operation since 1997. Towards Healing is provided by lay, independent fully accredited therapists, and offers clients:
– Helpline support
– Counselling
– Psych-Educational Group Work
– Practical Workshops
– Restorative justice / facilitated listening meetings
– Advocacy
Towards Healing can be contacted on free phone 1800 303416 (Rep of Ireland) and on free phone 0800 0963315 (Northern Ireland and UK). There is a mobile number for texting purposes for our hearing impaired service users only: 085 802 2859.
- Towards Peace Spiritual Support Service
Towards Peace provides a spiritual support and professional service for survivors of physical, emotional, sexual and spiritual abuse who suffered in an institutional, clerical or religious setting in Ireland. Funded by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the Association of Missionary and Religious in Ireland, the vision of Towards Peace is to provide a safe supportive space for people and their families, whose spiritual life has been damaged by abuse. Through spiritual accompaniment with a qualified spiritual director, Towards Peace endeavours to accompany people as they seek their own experience of spiritual peace, one step at a time. Towards Peace is also a response to the continually growing understanding of the spiritual impact of the trauma of abuse and seeks to raise awareness about this within the Church. The Towards Peace Spiritual Support Service is free of charge and for more please see https://towardspeace.ie/
- The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland
The National Board for Safeguarding Children was established in 2006 to develop policies that would foster the prevention of child abuse in the Catholic Church in Ireland. Its main object is to provide advice, services and assistance to continually develop the safeguarding of children within the Catholic Church on the island of Ireland and to monitor compliance with legislation, policy and best practice and to report on these activities annually.
To report a child safeguarding suspicion, concern, knowledge or allegation directly to the Church or statutory authorities, please see here.