Vol. 487 No. 1
26 Mr. G. Reynolds asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the resources, if any, his Department has put in place to enable national governing bodies to implement a code of ethics in view of recent scandals in the Irish Amateur Swimming Association. [3417/98]
34 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the resources, if any, his Department has put in place to enable national governing bodies to implement a code of ethics in view of recent scandals in the Irish Amateur Swimming Association. [3416/98]
51 Mr. Crawford asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the resources, if any, his Department has put in place to enable national governing bodies to implement a code of ethics in view of recent scandals in the Irish Amateur Swimming Association. [3419/98]
54 Mr. Browne (Carlow-Kilkenny) asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the resources, if any, his Department has put in place to enable national governing bodies to implement a code of ethics in view of recent scandals in the Irish Amateur Swimming Association. [3418/98]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 26, 34, 51 and 54 together.
Last year my Department provided funding to 75 national governing bodies to assist them in the development of their sport, including the critical element of providing a safe, secure and positive environment for children. The Department is currently awaiting receipt of their applications for financial assistance towards the cost of activities planned for the coming year.
A Code of Ethics and Good Practice for Children's Sport in Ireland, developed by a specially established expert committee under the auspices of the Department of Education, was published in June 1996 and issued to all the governing bodies of sport. The code provides detailed guidelines and assistance for sports organisations in the proper treatment of children in sport.
The National Coaching and Training Centre, having specific regard to the code, subsequently incorporated a module on ethics in sport in its ongoing national coaching development programme which is run in partnership with the governing bodies.
It is planned to hold a seminar later this year involving the governing bodies which will include a review of their experience to date with the implementation of the code. In the interim, while the code of ethics is widely regarded as a model of best practice for the protection of children in sport, I propose to reconvene the expert group which compiled the code to consider the need for further additions to the code in the light of the report of Dr. Roderick Murphy into child sex abuse issues in swimming.
I call Deputy Allen and I ask Deputies to have regard to the long debate we have already had on this subject.
I will. I welcome the Minister's decision to reconvene the expert group set up by me in 1996 which brought forward an excellent set of guidelines. In the past few days the IASA announced that it was appointing a children's liaison officer. The announcement of that appointment indicated that the IASA had not adhered to the code of ethics and good practice. For the sake not only of the children but the thousands of volunteers giving so much of their time to sport and recreation, who are now very fearful because of recent events, I ask the Minister to carry out a comprehensive survey of all the national governing bodies to ensure all aspects of the code of ethics and good practice are being implemented. Will the Minister consider offering incentives to groups that are vigilant in implementing the code and the question of withdrawing funding from groups found not to be implementing the code in an effective way?
I will take on board the Deputy's views. Offering incentives is one way of addressing the problem, reducing the funding is another. I agree with the Deputy that we rely heavily on volunteers to run our sporting organisations which would not exist without these honest people voluntarily giving their time. When one considers the number of people involved in sport, I am sure 99.9 per cent of those are honest, hardworking and above board. It is such a pity that they should come under a cloud of suspicion as a result of these horrific events.
In regard to the appointment of a children's liaison officer by the IASA, I asked the swimming association to set up an inquiry to ensure that the children in sport are protected. I am waiting for the swimming association to come forward with that report so that I can be assured it is implementing the code of ethics that has been published. Before funding will be restored I asked it to assure me that a strategy will be put in place to ensure this will not happen again and to prepare a report on this. My answer to the Deputy's question on whether I will investigate all NGOs should be given on auto-pilot at this stage because of this.
I did not ask the Minister to investigate but to check with them.
I agree with the Deputy. All NGOs should carefully examine their organisations to ascertain how the code of ethics for the safety of children involved in sport is being implemented. That is vital and, given the high profile publicity this case has attracted, I am sure they are doing that.
I share the Minister's views that it is essential to protect all those involved in sport on a voluntary basis. Will the Minister support a procedure to assist in that, which I suggested to my committee? It would involve consulting various federations on how such codes of ethics operate and how effectively they have been implemented to ensure we achieve our objective, a better environment for everyone. The public are demanding that of us. The procedure would involve bringing in representatives of the Sports Council — the main body in this area which has a role to play in the implementation of a code of ethics — to discuss the matter with it. In that way the public would know we are taking an interest to ensure that all sporting associations, not only those involved in swimming, follow the code of ethics outlined by Deputy Allen?
I am sure the Sports Council would be only too willing to co-operate with the Deputy's committee in any way possible. It would then be a matter for the committee as to how it should proceed. The Deputy could make his views known to the Sports Council, which is an active body and I am sure it would be happy to implement any proposals put to it by that committee.
