Mr. Martin Burbridge:

Perhaps I could make the following points because the Chairman has almost read my mind. Part of the reason that Mr. McCann is here is that he is a board member, although not an officer of the board. Two others who would be considered officers of the board made themselves available but we were not certain if we could increase the size of the delegation. If we had known that, the two others would have been with us. I apologise for that if there was a misunderstanding on our part.

The following is something I have been asked to mention, and it is exactly the point the Chairman raised. On behalf of the board of Scouting Ireland, we wish to apologise to the parents of our youth members, our adult members, the people of Ireland and the Governments, both North and South, for any anxiety and hurt we have caused. Together with Mr. Ian Elliot and our proposals for changing the structures and culture of the board of Scouting Ireland, we will address the shortcomings. We must continue to provide and improve a safe environment for both our youth and adult members and deal with compliance obligations under legislation and regulations, such as Children First, GDPR and the Charity Regulator in the jurisdictions on both parts of the island. In order to do this, it will be necessary for Scouting Ireland to address funding needs both current and future. This is absolutely essential to ensure we deliver services to exceed the standards required by the Childcare Acts.

We sincerely thank the committee for affording us the opportunity to come here today. We were not in a position to attend previously. I am not making excuses but a number of us are volunteers and were trying to deal with the issues we faced at the time. We have taken the first opportunity to attend. We recognise we have caused hurt, anxiety and fear. I can assure everybody in Scouting Ireland that we are working to make certain that we are dealing with the safeguarding shortcomings and that we will be taking whatever other action will be required and necessary when the investigation and reports that are currently in hand come to the board, hopefully, in the not too distant future.

I thank the committee members for their consideration, the way they posed questions and the way they treated us. It has been a pleasure to appear before the committee.