Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have made a great deal of progress since the witnesses' appearance in May. At that point, there was much that we did not know.

Mr. Elliot had said at that stage that records were "kept securely in fireproof filing cabinets in Larch Hill" and the Garda and Tusla had been informed about that. We are a number of months on in the process and we have a picture of the number of alleged abusers. We may not have been presented with a finite number but we understand that it is an iterative ongoing process and that the number of victims may increase as well. As he said, there are no files on one or more alleged perpetrators.

I am satisfied as to the openness of Scouting Ireland's engagement with us today in ensuring that there is confidence on the part of Members present but, most important, on the part of the ordinary decent people who give of their time every day to the organisation and those who fund the organisation, namely the taxpayers.

Notwithstanding the devastating numbers of people who are survivors or victims, some of whom are deceased, we cannot even imagine on a human level what the survivors are going through at present. It is unconscionable. We have to have some confidence in the fact that the organisation is now, to use its own phrase, "taking ownership" of the issue and that they are putting in place a victims policy. That certainly gives me some confidence.

Is Scouting Ireland making a financial contingency on its books for a number of cases where the DPP decides that there is a nolle prosequiwith some cases because of insufficient evidence? I do not want to presume the outcome here but, for example, there was a recognition in the Cloyne diocesan investigation where certain cases came before the court with the same modus operandithat on the balance of probabilities etc. that there was enough proof, notwithstanding the lack of proof in the book of evidence, and that there should be some form of compensation. Is the new board discussing those issues? I do not expect the board to say that it is but I want this issue on the agenda to get some sense from the organisation that it is dealing with that issue.