Number of abuse allegations against Catholic church increasing
There has been a slight increase in the number of allegations of abuse being reported to the National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland.
The group says 242 new allegations of abuse were reported to the Board between April 1 last year and the end of March this year.
That is five more than what was reported to the group the previous year.
Most allegations relate to abuse allegedly having taken place between the 1940s and 1990s, with the biggest number of allegations relating to the 60s, 70s and 80s.
All of these have also been passed to the Gardaí, the PSNI and, where appropriate, to the HSE.
