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

Dr. John Lawlor:

By way of a general observation on these matters, one of the things that guides us on the safety of children and safeguarding is respect for their dignity and privacy and confidentiality in cases. What shocked us is, however it happened - it is a fact that it happened - that those matters got into the public domain, which we think was extremely regrettable. It should not have happened. We do not want to put any further information on these cases into the public domain, regardless of whether in so doing it would be helpful in defending Scouting Ireland, in the interests of protecting the young people concerned. We are open to reviewing the cases with the statutory agencies, but we do not believe what happened was appropriate. It is unfortunate that it did happen, but it does not reflect how we believe cases involving young people should be aired.

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