Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman for staying to this hour. I appreciate it. I also thank the Minister for coming in at this hour and giving me the opportunity to discuss this very important matter. Most people will be well aware of the work St. John Ambulance does and the services it provides. We are all used to seeing its presence at a wide range of sporting events including GAA, soccer and rugby games, in the RDS and at various community events. The vast majority of people who are well used to seeing St. John Ambulance personnel will not be aware of the dark history of the organisation or of the dark influences that seem to linger within it. I am speaking of the child and adult sexual abuse carried out over a number of years by senior members of the organisation.

I commend the bravery of three survivors, Mick Finnegan, Paul Mulholland and Martin Hoey, who have spoken out publicly of the horrific sexual abuse they experienced when they were members of the organisation. Mick Finnegan was only 14 or 15 when the abuse started. Some of his testimony is harrowing, distressing and sickening.

Since this independent review into historical child sex abuse within St. John Ambulance began, the leadership of that organisation has effectively refused to take part in this review. It is nine months since the review began and I have been informed that St. John Ambulance has provided no material to Dr. Geoffrey Shannon to aid his review. Mick Finnegan recently met Dr. Shannon and showed him some documents that he had from the St. John Ambulance and this was the first time that Dr. Shannon had seen documentation from the organisation. St. John Ambulance is effectively stonewalling the review process. I have a deep concern that the organisation is closing ranks to protect rapists and sexual abusers who may still be active members of St. John Ambulance.

Every week St. John Ambulance continues to provide medical support to sporting and community events throughout the country. We cannot be passive observers of an organisation with a history of sexual abuse that refuses to comply with a review into that abuse. If St. John Ambulance were serious about this process, it would be more active in engaging with the process. It would be writing to older members, which it has not; it would be putting out public notices, which it has not; and it would be using its social media platforms to look for more information, which it has not.

No real action has been taken against any organisation like St. John Ambulance. We need action. We need the Minister to push it to ensure it engages in a meaningful way because clearly it has not. An organisation that has closed ranks and has not engaged with the review into sexual abuse is providing medical support to sporting and community events every week. I ask the Minister to address this as a matter of urgency to ensure that those who have carried out these horrific sexual abuses are held to account. Those who remain silent in the full knowledge that senior members of St. John Ambulance were doing what they were doing need to be held to account.

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