Mr Shatter described
the controversy over confession as “an entirely bogus issue” adding that he did
not believe it would be referred to in the bill, the Irish Times has
reported.

However,
while the proposed legislation will not refer to the seal it seems clear that it
will not provide an exemption for it either. Also, when previously asked whether
the Bill would exempt the seal, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Mr Shatter, and Children’s
Minister, Frances Fitzgerald, said it would not.

The proposed law is
intended to make it mandatory for certain
categories of people to report any information about an allegation of
child abuse to the authorities. Government sources said that the seal of
confession would be included in the proposal when it was announced in
July.

Asked yesterday if
there would be a reference to the confessional in the full Bill, Mr Shatter
said: “This is an entirely bogus issue. The focus of the Bill, the heads of
which were published at the end of July, is to ensure that where there are what
we describe as arrestable crimes, which include child sexual abuse committed
against a child, and where an individual has material information that would
assist the gardaí in the investigation of that crime, that they provide it to
the gardaí, unless there is a reasonable excuse not to do
so.”

He added that the
legislation was intended to ensure that those who know children are being abused
inform the Garda; that those who are the abusers are brought to justice; and
that other children are protected.

“The central focus of
this Government and my colleague Frances Fitzgerald and myself is child welfare
and child protection,” he said.

“And this
[Confession] is an entire divergence from the central focus of what we’re
seeking to address, and I think it would be helpful if those who are focusing on
that issue focused to a far greater extent on the protection of
children.”

His remarks, which
were made in Galway to reporters yesterday during the Fine Gael parliamentary
party meeting in Galway yesterday, come just days after his party colleague,
Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald, insisted that the seal of confession
would not be protected by the legislation.

In response to
remarks made by Cardinal Sean Brady, suggesting that the proposal constituted an
attack on the freedom of religion, she reiterated the Government’s intention to
apply their mandatory reporting legislation to the
confessional.

According to the RTE
news website, Ms Fitzgerald said she intends to bring the draft heads of the
planned legislation to Government in coming months.

She referred to
Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s Dáil speech in July in which he said that mandatory
reporting of child abuse would be required and that the seal of confession would
not be exempt.

Meanwhile, Irish Times political editor Stephen Collins has criticised the Government’s plan to force priests to break the seal of confession.

In an article last Monday, he described the proposal as “both pointless and gratuitously insulting to practising Catholics”.

“Attempting to legislate on confession would bring the law into disrepute as it would be unenforceable,” he added.