Catholic clergy in Ireland continued to conceal child sex abuse by priests even after the Church brought in rules in the mid-1990s to protect youngsters, a report says.

It claims John Magee, the now ex-Bishop of Cloyne diocese in County Cork, falsely told authorities he was reporting all abuse allegations to the police.

The government-sponsored study is scathing.

“The report assigns primary responsibility to the Bishop of the diocese,” Irish Justice Minister Alan Shatter told a news conference. “It also tells us that the person charged by the diocese to investigate complaints of child sexual abuse against priests did not approve of the procedures set out in the framework guidelines, in particular the requirement to report cases of abuse to the civil authorities.”

The Vatican is also criticised as being “entirely unhelpful” in this, the latest report, into a broader child sex abuse scandal within Ireland’s Catholic Church.