A spokesman for Ferns diocese declined yesterday to confirm or deny that it had submitted a bill for legal fees to the Ferns inquiry, which was unsworn and held in private.
It has been reported that the diocese has sought €100,000 in legal costs from the inquiry.
In reply to questions, a spokesman said: "In relation to the queries you have made, our primary focus at present is in dealing with persons affected by the report, its findings and its recommendations. When we are satisfied that these have been addressed to the satisfaction of all concerned, the issues you raised will receive the full attention of the diocese."
It is not clear whether costs sought by the diocese includes those fees incurred when it employed a solicitor and counsel to present its case at a special plenary hearing of the inquiry on September 2nd last.
That was necessitated by the discovery that files detailing allegations against a further 10 priests had not been submitted to the inquiry. Up to July last, the inquiry was being assured by diocesan authorities that all such files had been submitted to it.
In his investigation, prior to the setting up of the inquiry itself, George Birmingham SC had also been assured he had been given all such files.
The disclosure of extra files last summer precipitated a major crisis for the inquiry, leading it to consider dissolution even though its final draft report and recommendations had been completed. Had it decided to seek statutory powers to compel co-operation it would have meant a new inquiry.
It decided not to do so, but to attach an appendix to its report giving a précis of the files concerning allegations against five priests it had not had time to investigate fully.
The Ferns Report explicitly acknowledged the "full co-operation" it received from Bishop Brendan Comiskey, the South Eastern Health Board and "the same high level of co-operation" from the Garda.
Where Ferns diocese was concerned, it simply noted that "the taking of evidence was substantially completed by February 2005 with the attendance of Bishop Eamonn Walsh . . ." The inquiry then went into its fourth and final phase during which new files emerged.
The Ferns Report understood at its third phase that the level of co-operation it received from the diocese "went beyond anything the inquiry could have required, or which a court of law could have compelled."
But following disclosure of new files in its fourth phase, it concluded in the appendix to the report that their omission "was due to regrettable error and did not constitute the withholding of co-operation on its (diocese) part".
The inquiry terms of reference indicated it should receive "full co-operation" from agencies concerned. The report said it had received "co-operation".
