Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators who have tabled this important motion. As my colleague mentioned, we are inundated with report after report of current and historical abuse of women, children and men who are vulnerable people. Fianna Fáil believes in the delivery of fundamental public health services to the highest standard through investment, innovation and reform. We will not oppose the motion, which we welcome. We encourage St. John Ambulance to conduct an independent review of the handling of past allegations against the organisation and its current safeguarding practices. We know the Minister wrote to St. John Ambulance to encourage publication of the full report.The Minister's officials met with survivors of abuse who wished to raise serious concerns about safeguarding and historical abuse in the St. John Ambulance service following correspondence. Tusla engaged with St. John Ambulance prior to and during the review. Tusla officials have advocated for a review to take place following the confirmed outcomes of individual assessments of retrospective allegations made.

In 2017, the Children First Act was commenced in full. The Act sets out the obligations on people and organisations to protect children. The Act specifies the categories of mandated persons who must report suspected instances of child abuse to Tusla. The Act sets out the duties of relevant services to have a child safeguarding statement in place. The Tusla safeguarding statement compliance unit maintains a register of non-compliance of relevant services. The register may be viewed by members of the public. To date, no service statements have been deemed non-compliant due to engagement by Tusla officials to assist organisations reach compliance. Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, continues to be available to take referrals from persons seeking to report suspected abuse.

The Charities Regulatory Authority under the aegis of the Department of Rural and Community Development is Ireland's statutory regulator for charitable organisations, including St. John Ambulance.

The board of St. John Ambulance commissioned Dr. Geoffrey Shannon, now a judge of the Circuit Court, to conduct an independent review into historical allegations of child sexual abuse and to assess current safeguarding practices within the organisation. This is the report we are looking to have published.

It is sickening. My colleague touched on it again. We are inundated with reports. Nearly every organisation within the State is coming out with a report of some sort of child or other abuse. We saw the Women of Honour report yesterday. Other organisations have had similar reports. It is hard to stomach. Tusla has in place proper safeguarding mechanisms but we need to ensure they are properly resourced so that when reports of allegations are brought to their attention, they are able to deal with them.

Tusla is seriously under-resourced. Anyone would tell the Minister that. Social workers are under huge strain and they have a massive body of work that they just cannot get to. I do not know if it is down to the training or down to the level of funding but we have to ensure that Tusla has the proper resources in place.

I commend the motion and commend my colleagues on bringing it into the House today.