[The newly-appointed CEO of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland Teresa Devlin]
You may recall reports from March claiming that Ian Elliot – who carried out fieldwork in the diocese of Down and Connor in May 2013 and produced a draft report in July 2013 – may sue Bishop Noel Treanor over the December 2013 publication of the NBSCCCI review of safeguarding practice in the Diocese of Down and Connor, claiming the final report failed to include a serious clerical child abuse case.
At the time, Mr Elliot told the Irish Independent the diocese blocked the release of information it had about former priest Jim Donaghy, who was jailed for 10 years in 2012 for abusing two altar boys and a trainee priest.
The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland rejected the claim in a statement on its website.
Further to this, the newly-appointed CEO of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland Teresa Devlin spoke to Richard Dowling on RTÉ’s News At One yesterday, following the publication of the group’s annual report, which said 164 new allegations of abuse were reported to the NBSCCC and to State authorities, between April 1, 2013 and the end of March, 2014.
In the first half of the interview, Ms Devlin spoke about how the NBSCCC, over the last year, has completed 18 reviews of safeguarding practice. She said 26 dioceses, and 11 religious orders or missionary societies, have now been reviewed.
Ms Devlin also said the NBSCCC has stared a three-year training strategy which is focusing on developing skills within the clergy, including “developing more compassionate responses”.
Mr Dowling then raised the concerns previously voiced by her predecessor, Ian Elliot.
Richard Dowling: “The first couple of paragraphs in the report pays tribute to your predecessor Ian Elliot for, quote, the immense contribution he made to ensure children are safe. Yet, Mr Elliot is himself, we know, deeply unhappy with the particular report published on the Diocese of Down and Connor, this report published last July. He was involved with the board when the draft report was done. He wasn’t involved, he then left at that point. And then the final report was compiled and published. It’s known he’s deeply unhappy with the difference between one and the other.”
Teresa Devlin: “We are in the process of legal correspondence with Mr Elliott’s lawyers, so I don’t think it would be really..”
Dowling: “It’s not sub judice now, there’s no legal proceedings that have been initiated, I know you’ve exchanged letters but surely it puts a cloud over everything when a man of his ability and integrity says I have a particular problem with this report, I want my name disassociated from it.”
Devlin: “OK. Two things. First of all, on our website, we have made a clear statement about the process of that report, we didn’t put anybody’s name to that report, we never put people’s names to that report. So that’s not Mr Elliot’s report, that’s the board’s report. And we have given an explanation on our website as to the differences between the draft report that was written by him and the final report that was produced under my office.”
Dowling: “The diocese has the full report of, it also has a letter thanking Ian Elliot for his involvement. He would like that taken down. Surely, as a first step, that would be a reasonable request for him to make. Would you agree?”
Devlin: “And that’s a matter between the diocese and himself.”
Dowling: “Well it’s a matter for you, it’s your report?”
Devlin: “The letter, is the letter from the diocese..”
Dowling: “Well, the letter would have no significance, if it wasn’t for your report. The report is there and a link to it, with this letter, saying thank you Ian Elliot, surely that distorts what he says is the reality.”
Devlin: “Oh, absolutely, I accept that he was not the author of the report..”
Dowling: “So shouldn’t his name be taken away from it, in all circumstances, not just in how you publish the report but equally how the diocese publishes the report..”
Devlin: “Absolutely, tt was the national board that published that report, under my office, not under the offices of Mr Ian Elliot.”
Dowling: “It does put a question mark though, doesn’t it? Over not just this report but in the way business is being done, subsequent to his departure?”
Devlin: “Oh, well I would take a bit of offence at that because I’m now the CEO, I’ve been acting CEO for some time. I have been in child protection for 30 years, I’m a strong, confident woman. I can talk, I develop relationships with bishops in the way that they will listen to what I have got to say. I’m sufficiently independent and I have a governance arrangement around me…”
Dowling: “This is not to take away from your integrity at all, nor indeed the integrity of the others on the board. They’re very, very capable people and of the utmost integrity. But here we have the dichotomy , where you have a man of Ian Elliot’s ability and integrity saying this is not my report, I want nothing to do with this report. How do you explain the difference between his draft report and the final report.”
Devlin: “Well we’ve already done that. We’ve already explained that on our…”
Dowling: “Can you explain for our listeners?”
Devlin: “Absolutely. Within the draft, the first draft was produced before he left. It was an incomplete report because I then took over and I decided that more information was needed where the work was done on that report. There are two significant, substantive differences which were in Ian Elliot’s report which did not end up in the final report. One related to allegations of abuse against adults, which does not come within the terms of reference of our work ,and the second related to the relationship between the diocese and the office. The board made a decision that that didn’t have a place in a review of their safeguarding practice. The issue in relation to the adults, which is about assessment and management of risk, remained in the report. The reference specifically to adults did not.”
Dowling: “Ian Elliot doesn’t accept this.”
Devlin: “That’s a matter for him. I’m very confident about the evidence for that report. I stood over it and I still stand over it and I think it’s a factually-based, evidence-based, actual, factual report.”
Listen back in full here
Previously: On A Collision Course
