Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As it is almost 3 p.m., this is almost our fifth hour of meetings and I am very conscious the members of Scouting Ireland who are before us as witnesses and in the Visitors Gallery have been here since we started at 10 a.m. I thank all of them for their participation, as I thank the members for their diligence and attendance this morning and this afternoon.

There are a great many positive aspects to be highlighted in any such environment, particularly this one, as to the efforts of Scouting Ireland. In the context of why we are here, it is even more important that we get to grips with some of the detail. To echo some of the comments of Deputy Mitchell, from a personal perspective, not just scouters and legislators but parents were rightly horrified by some of the examples and these elicited an emotional response. As a parent, an emotional response when it comes to the protection of one's children manifests itself in various ways. For some parents, the decision they might make with regard to future or continued involvement with Scouting Ireland, or whatever the decision might be as a parent, is clearly justified in the context of that emotional response.

It is very clear to the members and those who have been observing these proceedings for the past five hours that there are questions relating to what has been put into the public domain by the Minister and there are responses that will have to be provided by Scouting Ireland in conjunction with Tusla. However, personally speaking, I am very pleased to hear it reiterated over and over that Scouting Ireland is not in conflict with Tusla and is working with it. That provides the opportunity to restore the trust that, in fairness, and I am not alone in saying this, Scouting Ireland has been working steadfastly to rebuild following the announcement in January or February of 2018 that there were historical case files that were throwing up difficulties for the movement in this country.

From my own perspective, I thank the witnesses for coming before us and, if not presenting their side, presenting a robust response to the position they find themselves in. I thank the members for their engagement, the Scouting Ireland representatives for making themselves available at short notice previously and this afternoon and the Tusla representatives who came before us and provided us with a great deal of information. As Deputy Sherlock illustrated, there are a series of questions, some of which perhaps came to light a little earlier in the process but were not put into the public domain in regard to the information we all came to find. We need to look at that. I asked Tusla what I feel is a legitimate question, namely, whether the children of Ireland were served by this document finding its way into the public domain. If the members of this committee had been presented with such an incendiary document, would we have made a decision to put it into the public domain or would we have carefully considered how best to respond to it, to engage with Scouting Ireland either publicly or privately, and to engage with Tusla either publicly or privately? I am not 100% convinced, as Tusla alluded to, that the best thing in this case is what has occurred. I do not need to dwell on it for longer than that as I have made my point clear from the start of these proceedings five hours ago.

On behalf of the committee, I thank the witnesses for their attendance, participation and responses and, indeed, for their volunteer spirit in everything they do. The committee will adjourn until 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 27 March 2019, when it will meet representatives of the Irish Foster Care Association and the Irish Association of Social Workers to continue its consideration of the topic of recruitment and retention of social workers.