The whereabouts of about 45 priests who abused children, including some of those whose activities were outlined in the Murphy report, are unknown.
Among those who have vanished is William Carney, a paedophile with serial convictions who molested 32 boys and girls while serving as a priest in the Dublin diocese.
The Murphy report found evidence to suggest Carney "may have acted in concert with other convicted clerical child sexual abusers" before he was dismissed in 1992. He is said to have moved to Scotland.
Another child abuser, Ivan Payne, vanished after being released from prison in 2002. He had been jailed for six years for sexually abusing boys from Dublin. He is thought to have moved to Britain.
Only a handful of priests who abused children in Dublin are on the garda's sex offenders' register. They are obliged to tell gardai of their movements or face a jail sentence or fine.
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Other offenders, including Carney, are not listed because they were convicted before the register was established in 2002.
The names of most priests in the Dublin diocese who molested children are not on the register because they were not convicted of an offence; in many cases the church reached out-of-court settlements with their victims. Campaigners for child abuse survivors have called on Dermot Ahern, the justice minister, to introduce laws to allow gardai to locate the "missing" child abusers.
John Kelly, of the Survivors of Child Abuse, a campaign group set up by victims of child abuse, said the government urgently needed to introduce such legislation.
"Children must be protected. These people are wandering around Ireland and continue to pose a very real threat to our children," said Kelly. "I recently saw a former priest, who I know abused a number of boys, walking through the city. He had long hair and was dressed casually. This man is not being monitored or supervised, he's just one of many," he said.
Kelly urged the justice minister, to "do whatever was necessary" to ensure that gardai monitored all paedophiles.
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He said: "Some of the priests have moved to Britain, where they are not on any register. The British police don't even know these people are in their midst. We need to ask if these people continue to pose a threat to children. I believe they do, so we need to take action now."
The Probation Service, a division of the Department of Justice, is supervising 123 sex offenders who are subject to post-release supervision. The number of priests among this group is unknown.