Under procedures in operation in my Department at present, any allegations relating to abuse of children by any member of the staff of a school which is made to officers of my Department is reported to the principal and chairperson of the board of management of the school whose response to the allegation is closely monitored. If my Department is not satisfied with the response, the matter is referred to the director of community care of the relevant health board. In the case of allegations made directly to school authorities, present procedures also require all such allegations to be brought immediately to the attention of the principal or the chairperson of the board of management. Thereafter the procedures allow for an element of judgment on the part of the school authorities as to whether the allegation is based on reasonable grounds before the matter is referred to the health authorities. The introduction of mandatory reporting would alter that.
My Department keeps the procedure relating to allegations of abuse under regular review. A working party, representative of the education partners, is already examining the existing guidelines on abuse to make sure that they represent a comprehensive and fully updated response to this issue. Representatives of the health boards have joined the working party. In addition, officials of my Department are participating in the working group established by the Minister for Health and Children to review procedures generally in this area. This working group is expected to report in the near future, following which my Department will adapt and reissue the guidelines to schools and Department staff.
In announcing the range of measures relating to child abuse on 11 May, the Taoiseach reaffirmed the Government's commitment to producing a White Paper on mandatory reporting as soon as possible. My Department will make whatever adaptations are necessary to existing procedures both at Department and school level, in light of the structure established arising from the White Paper.
There are approximately 46,000 files and records in my Department relating to the old industrial and reformatory schools. These files and records go back as far as the last century and their content varies very significantly in terms of detail. My Department also has a significant number of files dealing with policy issues relating to the operation of the industrial and reformatory school system. These files deal with a range of matters relating to the general operation of the facilities, including issues relating to funding, staffing and inspection.
Additional information.The commission into childhood abuse will receive wholehearted support and co-operation from my Department and will have full access to any file it requires as part of its work. I have arranged to appoint a professional researcher to draw from the Department's archives all files which would assist the commission. This researcher will also assess the material on the files and will advise me on the contents.
In addition, I have asked officials of my Department to review procedures for making files available to individuals concerning their time in industrial and reformatory schools with a view to making the files more accessible. In general, the approach of my Department regarding our records on industrial and reformatory schools is to co-operate as fully as possible with researchers and others who have a bona fide interest in them. In that context, the makers of the programme "States of Fear" received the complete co-operation of my Department. The only restriction placed upon access is that files which contain personal details of former residents of the school were not and are not made available in the interests of protecting the privacy to which these people are entitled, and neither are the files relating to current Garda investigations made available.