Bishop and religious representatives meet Ms Maureen Lynott

20 Dec 2004

PRESS RELEASE

20TH DECEMBER 2004

BISHOP AND RELIGIOUS REPRESENTATIVE

MEET MS MAUREEN LYNOTT

Members of the Steering Group: Bishop Donal Murray, Sister Helena O’Donoghue
and Father Tommy Murphy met today with Ms Maureen Lynott accompanied by Mr
Ger Crowley and Mr Kevin McCoy.

The meeting’s objective was to resolve the outstanding issues, including
those relating to structures, governance and accountability. This has
now been achieved.

The final draft of this policy is to be circulated shortly to the
Sponsoring Bodies and members of the Working Group.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

* The Steering Group of the Working Group on Child Protection Policy
represents its three sponsoring bodies: the Irish Bishops’ Conference;
the Conference of Religious in Ireland and the Irish Missionary Union.

* The Working Group to develop a comprehensive Child Protection policy
for the Irish Catholic Church held its first meeting on June 5th, 2003.
Led by management consultant Maureen Lynott, the Group was established
by the Irish Bishops’ Conference, the Conference of Religious of Ireland
(CORI) and the Irish Missionary Union (IMU). Members of the group
included experts in education, health, child protection, social work,
law enforcement, victims’ rights representatives and theologians.
The group concluded its work on the September 16th, 2004.

Further information:
Martin Long Director of Communications (086 172 7678)