Catholic Church Safeguarding Board Reports Surge In Abuse Allegations & Requests For Support.

Monday, 28 June 2021 11:50

It has released its annual report.

There was a large increase in requests for advice submitted to the National Board Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The overall increase was in the order of 51%, up from 260 advice requests in the 2019/20 academic year, to 392 in the 2020/21 academic year.

The board attributes this, in part, to the fact that “Many local safeguarding teams shrank during the pandemic so the dioceses and congregations turned to the National Board for advice and support.”

The National Board received, during the period under review, 134 complaints of abuse, of which 42 related to diocesan priests; 92 related to members of religious orders.

This demonstrates an increase in the number of allegations (116) reported to the National Board in the previous year.

Board chief exectutive, Teresa Devlin, joined Clem Ryan on Monday's edition of Kildare Today

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