Dr. John Lawlor:

The 2012 review was prompted by an issue that arose where almost accidentally we came upon an issue. An individual who had been removed from one of the - forgive me for calling it this - legacy organisations in 1972 had been found in late 2011 to be active in scouting. When that was discovered he was immediately removed and the learnings from that had to be taken on board. At the time we had inherited almost 300 files from the two legacy organisations, the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland or Scouting Ireland CSI, and Scouting Ireland SAI. Both files had essentially remained untouched and in filing cabinets in Larch Hill. Our immediate concern was that no person who had been removed from the legacy organisations had gained access to Scouting Ireland, either through the movement from the legacy organisations to the new organisation or in the move from essentially a paper-based record system to a database of membership.

We felt we had to check that and we put a team together to do it. We brought back staff who had some understanding of the files. Over a six week period, the files were analysed. Anywhere we had a doubt, it was reported. We found that no other person surfaced who had gained access to Scouting Ireland. We thought that was important to give us that sense of confidence. We had seven files the reporting status of which we were unsure and they were reported to both Tusla and the Garda at the time. All that recording was done. We fully reported on those cases.

What I will say in relation to that is that this was essentially a desktop piece of work. It did not involve investigation. It fulfilled what we believed was our obligation in reporting what we knew. That was quite a different situation from that that arose when the recent project to deal with safeguarding legacy in the scouting organisations. Of course, the attendant publicity assisted in bringing in so many of the calls, about which we talked earlier, to our helpline and it opened up a whole avenue of information that never previously existed or was not in the files. In all these situations, all reporting was made to the statutory agencies. I have said that Scouting Ireland has a good record of reporting. That is absolutely true. Of course, statutory reporting did not come in until 2017, as members will be aware, but Scouting Ireland was reporting solidly from the foundation of the organisation in 2003 and, indeed, in at least one of the legacy organisations, pretty well before that.