Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 13 March 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

Governance and Child Safeguarding Issues in Scouting Ireland: Tusla and Scouting Ireland

Mr. Adrian Tennant:

That is a good question. As unfortunate and terrible as the situation is, and all three of us have set out for the committee how saddened we are that we must deal with the situation, the fact is that it exists and we will look after the victims. We do not have to reinvent the wheel. Other national scouting organisations around the world have experienced similar circumstances, some to a greater extent and some lesser, and there have been different methods of trying to deal with that in different jurisdictions around the world. In the formulation of how we will deal with it through our victim support programme and so on, we have learned lessons from other places. I will pass to Dr. Lawlor to comment further in a moment. We received a great deal of support from other national scouting organisations and we have the support of the World Organization of the Scout Movement, WOSM, which is the overall body for scouting around the world. In fairness to us, WOSM recognises that we are not the first to face such tragic circumstances. It has rowed in and been supportive of us in our efforts and the manner in which we are dealing with the situation.

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