Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming in to bring clarity to a question that has been in the media for the last week with regard to the withdrawal of funding for Scouting Ireland. Scouting Ireland does excellent work around the country and this is down to the commitment, good work and will of the volunteers who keep it running. All the volunteer group's work should be properly supported and resourced by Government but, at the same time, organisations working with children and young people have a huge amount of responsibility and protecting children must be paramount to the ethos of everyday operation. Funding must be contingent on honouring this responsibility and on putting in place strong safeguards and processes to ensure that children are kept out of harm's way. I support and recognise the need to have strong child protection policies, including child protection officers and mandatory Garda vetting for all adults involved in the organisation. The Topical Issue matter was put down to understand the reason for the withdrawal of the funding and what processes are now in place to get the funding reinstated. The volunteers are reading about it in the newspapers and really want clear understanding as to why exactly it has come to this and what processes the Minister is putting in place.

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