All 197 allegations of physical, emotional and sexual abuse in the Safeguarding Children report relate to historic abuse. The NBSCCC revealed this week that none of the allegations relate to abuse taking place in recent years. A spokesman for the board confirmed to The Irish Catholic that all of the allegations received in the year up until March 31, 2010 were from adults recounting experiences suffered as a child and that all allegations were notified to the civil authorities.

Of the 197 individuals against whom allegations were made, approximately 140 had not faced such allegations before, according to the authors of the report.

Some 83 of the 197 alleged perpetrators of abuse are dead. Of the living 114, 35 had been laicised or dismissed from their congregation.

The breakdown of the 114 showed 47 related to the dioceses and 24 of these were out of ministry, with 10 in some form of limited ministry. Five had been laicised and eight had retired.

The remaining 67 living related to the congregations. Five were in limited ministry, 32 were out of ministry entirely, and the other 30 had been dismissed from their congregations.

Where alleged abusers continued in some form of limited ministry it is only with the approval of the National Office for Safeguarding children after a thorough assessment to ensure that children are not at risk.

In each such case, the allegation which led to the accused being removed from full ministry had not been proven in any civil or canon law process.

2,356 volunteers take up child protection role

The independent body that monitors child protection in the Church has reported widespread compliance and said children are much safer in the Church now than ever before.

Speaking at the launch of the annual report of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC), Ian Elliott, Chief Executive, said ''significant progress has been made in developing and implementing a single, coherent strategy to safeguard children in the Church.''

The board found that the overwhelming majority of Irish dioceses have a safeguarding representative in every parish. In fact, a total of 2,356 individuals have been trained to undertake responsibility for child protection in their parish. According to Mr Elliott, 1,230 of Ireland's 1,365 parishes have at least one trained safeguarding representative in place. However, while most dioceses have 100pc blanket coverage, the dioceses of Ossory, Killala and Clonfert have no safeguarding representatives in place.

When contacted by The Irish Catholic this week to explain why they had no safeguarding people in place while every other diocese had, the three dioceses in question said they would have such representatives in place shortly.

In Bishop John Kirby's Clonfert dDiocese, priests have undertaken the official Health Service Executive (HSE) child protection programme. However, safeguarding representatives are still not in place.

In Dr John Fleming's Killala diocese, parish safeguarding representatives have been nominated though are still not in place.

In Bishop Seamus Freeman's Ossory diocese, it is anticipated that by May 2011 all clergy, staff and volunteers will have received training in safeguarding children best practice.