The Irish Catholic Church's Independent Commission on Child Sex Abuse is to be disbanded following a meeting this week at which it decided its work "would not make sense" as originally envisaged.
The commission was set up in June to "establish the truth about the extent of child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Ireland, and the response of church authorities to complaints of such abuse".
Judge Gillian Hussey, chairwoman of the commission, said yesterday the decision to disband was made following the plan by the Government for a wider investigation.
She said the move came "in light of the Minister for Justice's stated intention to introduce legislation for a new procedure which would, inter alia, enable a detailed and focused investigation into how the church authorities dealt with allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy and religious".
The commission met this week to review its situation following a decision by the Cabinet at its meeting on December 4th to agree on proposals from the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, for a new form of State inquiry to investigate clerical child sex abuse.
The commission had been inactive since mid-October when, following his viewing of the Prime Time "Cardinal Secrets" programme, Mr McDowell said he was considering such proposals.
Judge Hussey said yesterday the commission had advised the church authorities that as the proposed national inquiry would appear to cover largely the same ground which the commission had intended to cover, it would not make sense for the commission to continue as originally envisaged.
She said: "The commission felt that it was imperative that a thorough investigation into how the church authorities dealt with allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy and religious should be carried out.
"However, the most important issue is not who carries out the investigation, but rather that it will ensure full accountability and assist the closure process for all those who have so tragically suffered." Responding to the announcement yesterday, the church bodies which sponsored the commission - the Irish Bishops' Conference, the Conference of Bishops of Ireland (CORI), and the Irish Missionary Union - thanked Judge Hussey and commission members "for agreeing to take on this difficult and challenging work".
They continued: "Our commitment to establishing the truth remains and in this context the national Garda investigation and the proposed State inquiry body will have our full co-operation. We look forward to learning the full detail of the inquiry in the New Year. A secure and safe environment for children and young people in all church-related activities remains our paramount concern.
"We are continuing to work towards the development of such an environment through the Child Protection Offices of the Irish Bishops' Conference and CORI. We need and welcome the fullest involvement of parents, priests, religious and other lay volunteers to achieve this.
"As we have done many times in the past, we again want to sincerely apologise to all those who have been abused by priests and religious in Ireland."
The commission, launched on June 27th, was the culmination of a series of meetings involving bishops and leaders of religious congregations after the resignation of Bishop Brendan Comiskey on April 1st.
