Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 November 2018
15. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the status of a report into an organisation (details supplied); the implications for the funding of same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45928/18]
View answerScouting Ireland commissioned Mr Ian Elliott to carry out a review into the organisation’s handling of an allegation of a serious sexual assault on an adult volunteer by another adult volunteer.
While this alleged assault took place in 2009, it was only reported within the organisation in 2016. Following on from Mr Elliott's report of his review, Scouting Ireland engaged a barrister to conduct a full investigation into this allegation, particularly with regard to the handling of the matter by certain senior volunteers. I expect to receive both reports once the barrister's investigation is completed.
In 2017 Scouting Ireland previously engaged Mr Ian Elliott to conduct a review of its child safeguarding/ protection policies and procedures. An interim report was produced in October 2017 and a final report was produced in January 2018. Both of these reports were subsequently submitted to my Department in March 2018.
In view of the information available to me relating to the governance arrangements within Scouting Ireland I decided, in April this year, to withhold the drawdown of further funding to the organisation under the Youth Service Grant Scheme until I could be satisfied that the organisation's governance standards were up to the required level.
In May I appointed Ms Jillian van Turnhout, as an independent expert, to examine the governance and related issues within Scouting Ireland. Ms van Turnhout submitted her final report to me on 14th June.
It contained a number of recommendations in the areas of safeguarding, management of the organisation, governance proposals and charities regulation. The report suggested that the restoration of funding to Scouting Ireland should be clearly linked to the successful implementation of these recommendations.
The Board of Scouting Ireland subsequently confirmed its decision to fully implement all the recommendations contained in the Review of Scouting Ireland report. On this basis I decided on 25th June to provide Scouting Ireland with interim funding for a further three month period, up until the end of September.
In providing this interim funding I requested that Scouting Ireland provide me with a further report by 24th September detailing progress in the implementation of the outstanding recommendations contained in the Review of Scouting Ireland. This report was subsequently submitted to me on 24th September for consideration.
At the end of September the former Board of Scouting Ireland voted to reinstate the Chief Scout as Chair of their forthcoming EGM. Shortly afterwards I received letters from the then Interim Chair & Mr Ian Elliott setting out their serious concerns about the Board's actions and it's ability to properly govern the organisation. Based on this correspondence and discussions I had with both I decided to further suspend funding for as long as the then Board was in place. A new board was elected at the EGM on the 6th of October.
I am satisfied with the significant progress made by Scouting Ireland in terms of the implementation of the Jillian van Turnhout recommendations and in the essential governance changes committed to by the organisation.
For this reason I have restored funding to Scouting Ireland until the end of April 2019. I have requested a further progress report from the organisation by the end of March 2019 as well as copies of the independent barrister’s report and the final Ian Elliott report of the individual case review he conducted.
