A probe by the Vatican into the handling of clerical child sex abuse in Ireland will be published and not kept secret, a senior aide to the Pope has pledged.

Dr Joseph Tobin said nobody wants to hide or brush anything under the carpet, and he claimed the church has got to take criticisms of its handling of clerical abuse seriously.

The report of the Apostolic Visitation ordered by the Pope in 2010 is expected to be published next year.

"I don't think anybody wants to hide anything or brush it under the carpet, it is simply that if there are things that should be done now that are not being done then we would want to know," Dr Tobin said.

The senior cleric, who was in Dundalk to ordain Meath man Derek Ryan as a priest with the Redemptorist Order, also said the Vatican would be "very interested" to learn if any of the recommendations on safeguarding children had not been implemented.

The comments will be seen as a signal that the Vatican is taking the issue of clerical abuse in Ireland seriously on the back of the unprecedented criticisms of the Holy See by Taoiseach Enda Kenny following the Cloyne Report last July.

Mr Kenny's comments sparked the recall to Rome by the then Papal Nuncio Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza.

Questions have been raised about relations between the two states in the wake of Mr Kenny's comments, and the recent closure of Republic's embassy to the Holy See.

The new Papal Nuncio, Monsignor Charles Brown, is due to take up residency in Dublin in January.

Dr Tobin insists the visitation's findings will not be kept secret.