Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It has been nearly a year since the publication of the damning report into St. John Ambulance, which included findings such as the following. The organisation’s structure and culture left the organisation vulnerable to grooming and sexual abuse of children within the organisational context. The hierarchical structure facilitated predatory behaviour within the organisation in the past. There was a significant degree of organisational awareness of serious threats to children, with the organisation failing to undertake any meaningful investigation into known or suspected threats to children prior to 2000. These are just some of the many shocking findings in the 333-page report.

Unfortunately, for survivors, this report was far from shocking and I take the opportunity to commend survivors on their tireless work and bravery. The fact that they were forced to experience such abuse as children is horrific, but the way they were treated by St. John Ambulance following this is truly appalling. The organisation completely failed survivors first by failing to protect them and then by turning a blind eye, in some cases even accusing survivors of lying. It has only continued to fail them since. The lengthy process that survivors had to go through to ensure that this report was completed was unacceptable. Not only that, but once completed they had to fight to actually get it published. It was only published after daily protests outside the headquarters of St. John Ambulance.

This was a disgraceful way to treat abuse survivors and the lack of respect and care shown by St. John Ambulance should be noted. It is clear that this is not a case of failures by the organisation 20 years ago, this is a case of consistent and repeated failures by the organisation, as recently as last year.

As the Minister will know, the report made a series of recommendations, one of which was the employment of a full-time safeguarding officer, independent of St. John Ambulance. However, over a year after the organisation was given these recommendations, this has yet to be implemented, with the organisation now saying that it does not have the funding to employ a safeguarding officer. It is extremely disappointing that this has not been a priority for the organisation. Nothing should be more important to St. John Ambulance than ensuring sufficient child protection, especially in light of its many failures, spanning decades.

I know that the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, said last week that the Government will make a contribution for the first year towards the cost of the safeguarding officer role and link that to an agreement with the organisation through a service level agreement. Can the Minister justify and outline the rationale for the payment of the role of safeguarding officer in St. John Ambulance and explain if this will be a mechanism available to other organisations in financial distress?

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