A solicitor representing victims of paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth says they want answers from the Gardai Commissioner about who knew about the abuse.

Yesterday it was announced that the victims will take legal action against the Gardaí, after revelations that officers in Dublin knew about Father Smyth's sex abuse in the early 1970s as a letter was sent to Finglas garda station confirming Smyth was a paedophile.

Discovering this fact this week “was a deeply, deeply re-traumatising issue” for many victims, Solicitor Kevin Winters told Chris Donoghue on Breakfast this morning.

This emerged at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Northern Ireland, which is currently examining whether systemic failings enabled Smyth to continue his offending for so long.

“For them to learn this some 40 years on was deeply shocking ... they wanted to know what they could do in terms of legal actions.”

“It leads to the extraordinary situation where you have a police force failing to take any action.”

Solicitor Kevin Winters says they want to know how high up the information went.

“We’re sending a preliminary letter raising a series of issues, the most obvious of which is who was tasked with dealing with this information when it landed on someone’s desk?

Winters says there is a series of questions victims want answered before deciding what further action to take.

"How high up in seniority was the matter dealt with, was it simply binned? Was it sent to somewhere else? Was there a decision taken at a higher level not to activate it?”

Listen below to Solicitor Kevin Winters speaking to Breakfast