Seán Sherlock
Question:23. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the process for the restoration of funding to an organisation (details supplied). [45922/18]
View answerWednesday, 7 November 2018
Questions (23)
Written answers
As the Deputy is aware, 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 by 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. In accordance with her Terms of Reference she was asked to provide me with a clear assessment of Scouting Ireland's governance arrangements. Ms van Turnhout submitted her final report on the Review of Scouting Ireland to me on 14th June. The report contained a number of recommendations in the areas of safeguarding, management of the organisation, governance proposals and charities regulation. Ms van Turnhout also indicated 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 25th June I decided to provide Scouting Ireland with interim funding for a further three month period up until the end of September. This funding was provided in view of the significant progress achieved by Scouting Ireland in the implementation of a number of the required recommendations and to provide it with an opportunity to implement the outstanding recommendations.
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 my Department 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.
Question No. 24 answered with Question No. 8.