Mr. Martin Burbridge:

Having been part of the leadership team which successfully created Scouting Ireland in 2003, when it was formed from two older organisations, I became the first chief scout of the new organisation. I am currently the team leader of the governance change project, which encompasses the challenges being faced by Scouting Ireland at present. I am accompanied by Dr. John Lawlor, who is the chief executive officer of Scouting Ireland and has a background in scouting; Mr. Kieran McCann, who is a scout leader in the Ardoyne area of Belfast and a member of the board of Scouting Ireland; and Mr. Ian Elliott, who is an independent safeguarding consultant. Mr. Elliott is working with us to guide us through safeguarding changes.

Scouting Ireland wishes to thank the joint committee for its interest in and concern for the difficulties we are currently experiencing. It was always the intention and stated commitment of the organisation to come before the committee. As members will be aware, our preference was to do so after the completion of the investigator's report. We are here today to address the committee's concerns as openly as possible within the constraints placed on us by the current investigation. Unfortunately, the interim chair of Scouting Ireland, Ms Annette Byrne, is abroad and unavailable today due to a long-standing leave commitment. Nevertheless, we are confident that our team has sufficient knowledge and expertise to provide the committee with the necessary information.

As the committee is aware, we met the Minister, Deputy Zappone, and her officials on 19 April last. Our lengthy, constructive and detailed discussion covered all the areas of concern. We have since provided further information on cases of particular concern that were raised by third parties with the Minister. We continue to engage regularly with the Department on these matters. We are pleased the Minister has advised the Dáil that in light of our conversation, she believes Scouting Ireland to be honest in its ambition and intention to make the reforms that are necessary. Members will know that the Minister has appointed a former Senator, Ms Jillian van Turnhout, to provide her with a view on Scouting Ireland's governance. Scouting Ireland welcomes this appointment and looks forward to working with Ms van Turnhout to provide the necessary reassurance to the Minister concerning the adequacy of the governance of our organisation and the project that is in train to improve our governance structures radically.

The withholding of funds has had an immediate and serious impact on the finances of Scouting Ireland. A Government grant under the youth service grant scheme represents approximately one third of our funding. This is primarily spent on funding our national office and professional staff salaries. Our financial situation is now grave, with a requirement to place staff on protective notice in June. Our reserves are limited. The stop on funding has had significant indirect effects. We are experiencing a loss of key staff because of the uncertainty of their positions. Our board has taken steps to change our reserves policy, restrict our spending and husband our resources to maintain our operations for as long as possible. We have experienced a negative reaction from creditors and suppliers. This is affecting our day-to-day operations and, worryingly, our ability to put in place the necessary arrangements and facilities for our planned jamboree for 3,000 young people in July. It is also affecting the planned recruitment of additional professional safeguarding staff. The establishment of a pathway to the restoration of our funding is a vital requirement for us.

Scouting Ireland was established in 2003 as an unincorporated entity. Scouting Ireland Services was established as a company limited by guarantee at a later stage. The management and oversight of these two entities are enmeshed in a single board called the national management committee, which consists of elected volunteers. At present, the volunteer national management committee exercises executive control in Scouting Ireland and directs the chief executive officer. A governance reform project that is in its fourth year is working to change this structure to separate the oversight and executive functions and establish clear lines of accountability and responsibility. This project, which has been accelerated so that it will reach its conclusion in October 2018, will facilitate full compliance with the code of governance for the community and voluntary sector.

In July 2017, Scouting Ireland on its own initiative commissioned Mr. Ian Elliott, who is an internationally respected expert in safeguarding, to review our safeguarding policies, procedures and practices to ensure we were conforming with best practice and were compliant with the Children First Act 2015 ahead of its implementation in 2018. The chief executive officer asked Mr. Elliott to conduct a critical case review into a specific case. The interim report produced by Mr. Elliott in October 2017 was presented to the board of Scouting Ireland. The recommendations made by Mr. Elliott, including the stepping down of the child protection management team, which was a standing committee of the board, and the transfer of responsibility for safeguarding to the chief executive officer, were accepted in full. It was decided that Mr. Elliott should provide professional supervision of case management in safeguarding until new structures and additional professional staff could be put in place. That arrangement is continuing.

Mr. Elliott completed his second report in November 2017 and appended the requested critical case review. This was presented to the board of Scouting Ireland in January 2018. The critical case review was updated in February 2018. The board resolved on foot of the critical case review to commission an independent investigation into whether named individuals acted appropriately with regard to a complaint. It further resolved that the board would consider disciplinary actions based on the findings of that investigation. Four senior volunteers who are directors of Scouting Ireland are the respondents in the investigation. A barrister has been engaged to carry out this investigation, which is independent and at arm's length from Scouting Ireland. It is anticipated it will conclude by the end of this month. The report will be provided to our board for its consideration and action as appropriate. We are concerned that this investigation should not be compromised by any external commentary or interference and we will avoid any comment on it while it proceeds.

The legacy safeguarding structure that was stood down in October 2017 on the recommendation of Mr. Elliott relied on a board sub-committee called the child protection management team with a volunteer chair and membership of senior volunteers, and with the child protection officer and chief executive officer attending. Mr. Elliott identified serious weaknesses in this structure and particularly pointed to the vulnerability of volunteers to be lobbied in cases. Mr. Elliott has proposed a new structure with an entirely professional management and expert oversight. This will include a safeguarding co-ordinator, in-house case officers and external sessional case officers who will be engaged on a case-by-case basis. A regional spread of expertise and overarching professional expert oversight will also be made available.

Scouting Ireland has 34 full-time staff supporting and serving 13,000 adult volunteers, who provide Scouting Ireland's programme to 40,000 young people in over 500 communities across the island of Ireland. Our staff to volunteer ratio is by far the leanest in this sector. Our human resources strategy, which was prepared recently, has identified a gap of ten full-time equivalent staff to meet our current requirements. This is before the requirement to recruit additional safeguarding staff. Scouting Ireland does not have the financial resources to close this human resources gap.

Scouting Ireland is in possession of historic case files covering safeguarding and child protection cases reaching back to the 1950s. These pre-2003 files were passed on to Scouting Ireland from the two old scouting organisations after they resolved to form Scouting Ireland in 2003. These files are securely stored by Scouting Ireland and are made available to statutory agencies as required. Access to these files has been provided on occasion to assist investigations by An Garda Síochána and Tusla. They have provided an important source of information in those inquiries. In 2012, Scouting Ireland conducted a review of these files with the specific objective of determining if any person removed from the old organisations for child protection reasons had gained access to Scouting Ireland. We encountered one such case, which was immediately dealt with by removing this person from the organisation. No further such instances were uncovered in the review. As part of meeting the recommendations set out in Mr. Elliott's report, a further indepth assessment of these files is planned and will be made under Mr. Elliott's supervision. Since 2012, Scouting Ireland has carefully maintained safeguarding and child protection files. We have worked to improve their quality, guided by the report and oversight provided by Mr. Elliott.