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Updated, 12:22
THE CONTROVERSIAL new legislation which would make it a criminal offence not to disclose information relating to the abuse of a child would not address the current exemptions granted to priests, it has emerged.
A briefing paper for TDs and Senators, produced by the Oireachtas library service, has noted that the Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons Bill does not remove the privilege given to priests under a court ruling from 1945.
In that ruling – in the case of Cook v Carroll – the High Court held that priests enjoyed “sacerdotal privilege”, which gives them the right to “refuse to divulge any confidential communication whatever made to him as a priest”.
That means that any disclosures made to a priest – even if they are not given through the sacrament of confession – do not have to be referred onwards, as they are considered to have been made in confidence.
The report, covered by the Irish Daily Mail this morning and seen by TheJournal.ie, notes that the Bill being brought through the Oireachtas at the moment does not make reference to, or rescind, any privileges – meaning it would continue after the Bill is enacted.
The Children’s Ombudsman, Emily Logan, had recommended that the legislation include clauses which removed sacerdotal privilege, “given the serious nature of arrestable offences against children”, but such legislation was not included.
“While it is for the Attorney General to advise on the constitutionality of any proposed legislation, this Office does not believe that it would be unconstitutional for the legislation to be extended to the confessional and this Office recommends that it be so extended,” Logan said.
In any event, it should be clarified that sacerdotal privilege in respect of communications outside the confessional cannot give rise to a reasonable excuse.
Some jurisdictions limit privileged communications where alleged child abuse is involved; a number of states in the US recognise only client-lawyer privilege in such cases, while others do not recognise any privilege in communications relating to suspected child abuse.
The Oireachtas library routinely compiles objective and impartial briefing papers on legislation, to help legislators understand the implications of each Bill that comes before them.
A Leinster House spokesman said the service produced a Bills Digest and Debate Pack, which together were “designed to assist members in their scrutiny of legislation before the Houses”, though neither constituted formal legal advice.
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The knives are out, his own party are currently scheming against him. There is a coup a brewin. Watch your back Kenny.
I thought the same thing… Does Mr Deasy ever wear a brown shirt?
wake up people FG FF LAB are self serving and are in politics for them selves and are un democratic.
Every great opinion ever starts with ‘wake up people’
maybe thats true Bill,
might be the very reason Kenny gets the knife in the back too
@PaulRoche
Do you mean Ernst Róhm, Nazi Brown Shirts, Night of the Long Knives and all that?
If so, why, pray tell.
I’m sure I am missing something here!!
Exactly Connaghtabú
I have commented earlier on this site that fascist comparisons to the current FG leadership will become more common.
I see the trend towards centralising power at a time of economic crisis to be extremely worrying. Thankfully, we have voted to retain the Seanad, but my fears will continue while Enda remains at the helm.
no that would be SF, same leader and deputy leader for the past 30 years and no sign of an election
Conor,
If a political party does not have an elected leader that is something that should be investigated. I hope for your sake you are right, because otherwise you’d look a little silly. The people of Louth gave Adams a seat, which is an indication of an election, and I understand that SF have been elected to some positions in the Northern Irish government.
What confuses me most is when people who claim to be pro democracy, misrepresent what happens when it occurs.
sf , ff , fg , lab . vote for any of these and you will get more of the same , ,
ddi is the way forward
“The knives are out, his own party are currently scheming against him. There is a coup a brewin. Watch your back Kenny.”
In fairness the ‘schemer’ is John Deasy who has been scheming against Enda Kenny since 2004.
DDT for you, Ben (Brown boy).
Poor old Deasy savaged by a wet sheep.
Poor old Deasy savaged by a wet sheep Kenny
More like two wet sheep so close to each other that no one can tell if they are fighting or hugging and no one wants to find out.
Like most sheep soon to be lamb chops in the locals.
More power to Deasy.this Kenny lad becoming something of a bullying dictator
Deasy fell out with nearly everyone in his party when he decided to light up in the Dail bar the day after the smoking ban came in. His attitude to being told put it out was not very nice. He fell out with everyone because of that.
The man is a grade A plonker.
Deasy is the Timmy Dooley/Dara Calleary of Fine Gael. Anyone who takes him serious is only an on par fool.
Kenny again seeking publicity for himself. Would you ever shut up and resign.
Don’t worry enda will whip him back in line
its hardly surprising that they fall out with him they didnt even want him as party leader going into the general election
The cracks are beginning to show….publicly. Kenny’s fall will be epic. #Wallop
I am being pedantic again, I see a spelling mistake on the 10th line. :)
…………and too many “with” in the para under the ‘photo’. Do jounos’ no longer take English ?
hahahaha
If we’re going to be pedantic:
1. What’s with the 12 full stops at the start of your post? Do you not realise that the country is in recession, tighten your belt and use a more conservative 3 (2 after the budget)
2. You start a sentence with a lower case conjunction, this is wrong on precisely 2 levels
3. Why are there single quotes on the photo, is it in fact not a photo? (The photo is a lie)
4. What’s a jouno and why did you use a possessive plural?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9YoN9mkyctI#t=130
Sean, mea culpa. Trying to rush a post when I should have been in my car heading for a meeting. Will restrict the full stops in future; wouldn’t want to use up the whole of Ireland’s 2013 quota in one go. A jouno is mis-spelt journo – see above. ‘photo’ is merely how I was taught, (more years ago than I care to remember), to style the diminutive of photograph.Thank you for caring.
Just so we’re clear, I was joking… You got that, right? :)
I hoped I’d detected a certain tongue-in-cheek attitude and glad I was correct, (“Thank you for caring” was my contribution).
Kinda hard to tell humour from deranged on Journal.ie sometimes
Have a great weekend when it arrives – or you arrive at it, whichever is more appropriate.
I voted to keep the senate. But last night watching a report from the senate I wondered why. A Tipperary senator took to his feet for some time to complain about RTE not reporting the results of GAA county finals on the main evening news !!
What is “Senaad” ?
“Seanad” is the new upper house. It will be run by Clannad so at least it will be entertaining.
Deasy would fight with himself! Does he do anything other than argue? Record in Dail not up to much I’d say
now people of ireland your next referendum is to vote to get us out of europe demand a general election get rid of hitler kenny dum and dumber gilmore and get dictator merkel out of ireland as well imagine the amount of relieve taken of the irish people shoulders it would be a 21 centuary reliefe so send your letters to hitler kenny for these demands stand firm they are on the ledge now just push
In fairness to Deasy – his was the only action resulting in a conviction for the scandals of planning in the last decade … all hail Fred Forsey
direct democracy is the way to go
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