Plans to launch the National Board and the National Office to operate the Church’s new child protection policy, Our Children, Our Church have run into delays.

The Board was originally to be launched late last year, and then shortly after Easter, but so far the name of the only the Chairman of the Board, retired Judge, Anthony Hederman, has been announced.

In April, a spokesman for the hierarchy told the Irish Catholic that “the National Board will be in place three to four weeks after Easter and the names announced after that”.

Easter Sunday fell on April 17. A newspaper report last October quoted a Church spokesman to the effect that a new Board would be announced “within a month”.

It is understood that the members of the Board have been picked by Justice Hederman, but have yet to be approved by the three Church bodies that have signed up to Our Children, Our Church. These are the so-called “sponsoring bodies”.

The three are the Bishops’ Conference, the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) and the Irish Missionary Union (IMU).

The names of the Board are currently being considered by the three bodies. In the case of the bishops, it is understood the names have to be approved by the entire Bishops’ Conference.

It met earlier this month, and will not meet again until October, although one may take place before then because the hierarchy are due to travel to Rome in October to report to the Pope on the state of the Church in Ireland.

When finally approved, the National Board will then set about establishing the National Office which will be in overall charge of implementing Our Children, Our Church on a day-to-day basis.

However, before the National Office can be established, its staff must also be approved by the sponsoring bodies which will cause further delays.

Currently, separate child protection offices are run by the Bishops and by CORI and once the National Office comes into being, these will cease to operate.

Our Children, Our Church was formally launched by the Church last December.

It is not clear what is causing the delay and whether it is merely bureaucratic or the policy itself has run into problems.

Mr Colm O’Gorman, head of child abuse support group, One in Four, said the delay fitted “an international pattern” which saw bishops in other countries “launch their child protection policies in a blaze of publicity, but then behind the scenes, the policy is watered down.

© The Irish Catholic