Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The committee hopes to look at this and I know that some members of the committee, Deputies Sherlock and Cairns, are present. I assume there has been consultation with the survivors who have come forward and told their stories of anything that has gone on in St. John Ambulance, but I just want to make sure that has been done. It also raises the really serious question of who is in charge of ensuring organisations, whether State-funded or not, that deal with children have the correct procedures in place and have best practice. I talked earlier about a HIQA-style organisation. HIQA examines and ensures everything is in order in the health sector. Do we need to look at something like this for child protection? It is very worrying - I do not even know if "worrying" is a strong enough word to use - that up to November 2022 this organisation, which would known there was a huge amount of speculation around it, still did not have its procedure in place. I know the Minister has acknowledged that was not acceptable but are there other organisations that we do not know of? Do we need to look at legislation or something like that to give Tusla the powers to check these organisations on a regular basis?

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