DUBLIN: Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin apologised yesterday to the victims of child sex abuse and admitted his "shame", after a new report detailed a decades-long cover-up by the Irish Catholic Church.

"I offer to each and every survivor my apology, my sorrow and my shame for what happened," Martin said, after a three-year investigation found the Church had routinely protected abusers and failed to inform police of allegations.

"I am aware that no words of apology will ever be sufficient," he said, adding that "the fact that many abusers were priests constituted both an offence to God and an affront to the priesthood."

Offence

Martin, who took over in 2004, after the period covered by the investigation, said the report had shown that the Church covered up abuse and shielded those who perpetrated it from prosecution, which allowed them to re-offend.

"Excuses, denials and minimisations were taken from priest abusers who were at the least in denial, at worst devious in multiple ways, and decisions were taken which resulted in more children being abused," he said.

Separately, the Irish government apologised yesterday for failing to protect children from sexual abuse by Catholic priests, and vowed that "this can never happen again".

In a statement, it said a new report into sexual abuse over decades showed clearly that "a systemic, calculated perversion of power and trust was visited on helpless and innocent children."