The Deputy will appreciate that the advisory committee was established by the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference. The terms of reference of the advisory committee were to consider and advise on an appropriate response by the Catholic Church in Ireland where there is an accusation, suspicion or knowledge of a priest or a religious having sexually abused a child, to identify guidelines for Church policy in this area and suggest a set of procedures to be followed in these circumstances.
The Garda authorities were not represented on the advisory committee. There was no direct consultation between the advisory committee and the Garda Síochána, and while one might think that such consultation would not have been out of place, a private organisation was clearly free not to consult if that was its wish. Garda representatives together with a number of statutory and voluntary agencies contributed to the listening days held by the advisory committee during January and February 1995, but clearly this kind of participation in the work of the committee cannot be classified as consultation.