Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 9 May 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

Governance and Child Protection Policy: Scouting Ireland

4:10 pm

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am looking for help to understand this issue. It is probably awkward to ask Mr. Elliot the question when the CEO is sitting beside him, but the CEO has brought in Mr. Elliot to do a job and I will proceed on that basis. There are a number of sample cases on file during the tenure of the CEO and Mr. Elliot is going through an internal process, albeit with an external consultant. I have dealt with him in the past on the Cloyne report. Historically, we have had much engagement on the national board for safeguarding children in the Catholic Church. Had it not been for him, the Cloyne report would never have seen the light of day. We did a great deal of work on it and I appreciate the work he has done in safeguarding children. However, I have a difficulty in understanding why, for instance, if an investigation is ongoing into a sample number of files during the CEO's tenure, the board and the CEO have not stepped aside from the process and the investigation has not become a fully external process on the basis that there is considerable taxpayer funding at play and there is a massive disparity between the ordinary experiences of the leader of a scout troop and the children and those who operate in the upper echelons of the organisation. This speaks to the issue of governance to which I will come shortly. Should the entire board and leadership step aside while the process is ongoing and should somebody else step in to act as an honest broker in order that everybody can have confidence in the process?

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