Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being in the Chamber. I rise in support of this motion. I thank the Fine Gael Senators, including Senators Seery Kearney and Doherty, for introducing it to the Chamber for debate this afternoon. I will begin by commending Mick Finnegan, Paul Mulholland, Martin Hoey, Mark Pender and the other victims and survivors of the abuse that was perpetrated within St. John Ambulance. It took great courage for victims and survivors to come forward and share their stories. It took real perseverance to arrive at the point where we are in a position to discuss the findings of the report prepared by Dr. Geoffrey Shannon.

When I first began to work on this issue in around 2020, Mick Finnegan had come to speak to me. I was apprehensive at first about bringing it up as a Commencement matter. Sometimes when talking about trauma and abuse you are afraid to get people's hopes up that something is going to be done or can be done. Mick thankfully bore with me for a number of months until we knew what the lay of the land looked like. I had discussions with the Department about what type of report could be done, what that might look like and how we could move this forward. It was only then, knowing we could potentially move and begin to look at this, that we were able to bring that Commencement matter. I had to convince Mick a little at the time about why we needed to wait. When you get going and are constantly telling your story, you have to make sure that when you are driving things forward, you at least know there can be an outcome and it is not going to be blocked again. Two years on - it is hard to say "with great happiness" because it is an awful report we have to look at - I am happy that this is the point we are at in terms of justice and acknowledging what the survivors went through.

I know in my heart that there are many more people involved in this, especially with the one perpetrator this began with. I have said it before. I know the services he had access to. I think of all the people across Dublin 12 and Dublin 8 I have worked with throughout years of addiction and homelessness. I cannot stop thinking about it because I know they were youths in the services that St. John Ambulance and that particular perpetrator had access to. I look at them now as adults and I wonder if he had access to them. In some cases we are never going to know. Even though this report will only name or reference a certain number of people, I think we can be strong in saying that it is for every survivor. Whether they ever speak or do not, they should know they are heard and are believed and that there will be accountability in some shape or form.

We need to look at what can be done with organisations like St. John Ambulance with respect to child protection and safeguarding policies, systems and practices. As noted by Dr. Shannon, significant structural and cultural changes are required within St. John Ambulance, recognising that the organisation and patterns of behaviour that occurred within it "led to systemic failures in child protection and safeguarding". While much of the abuse covered in the report pertains to the 1990s and the decades prior, Dr. Shannon noted that St. John Ambulance "operated an unsafe child safety culture" as recently as 2011. Many current and former volunteers have spoken about a deep resistance to change that still exists within the organisation. The issues this report speaks to remain quite live to this day. It is critical that the recommendations from the Shannon report are acted on immediately, including as they relate to the need for cultural changes within the organisation. The structural corrections, which include improved processes for Garda vetting, must be undertaken without delay.

Dr. Shannon's review found that the differential rank and file structures within St. John Ambulance have assisted in facilitating the abuse and grooming of children. The military-like hierarchy that has existed within the organisation prioritises rank and status, which has created a dysfunction in governance and oversight.The inappropriateness of the chain-of-command system for reporting incidents in these sorts of organisations has also been shown in the disclosure of abuse in our Defence Forces, as highlighted by the Women of Honour. It is simply not an appropriate mechanism for dealing with complaints and disclosures of this nature. This is especially the case regarding complaints and disclosures made by children.

There is another element to the abuse perpetrated at St. John Ambulance, that is, the failure of the State to act when alarm bells were rung by victim survivors about the abuse that took place in the organisation, and the systems that upheld it. For me, this is potentially the more significant issue. Unfortunately, it will likely always be the case that certain organisation do not fulfil their responsibilities in respect of child protection or safeguarding. While we cannot observe what happens in organisations around the clock, it is imperative that we can place our trust in the agency charged with the statutory responsibility for child protection, so that when alarm bells are sounded we know the requisite investigations and actions will be taken. This was not the case with the abuse that took place in St. John Ambulance. We ought to hang our heads in shame.

How can it be that, as recently as 2019, Tusla deemed that there was no evidence of systemic or organisational abuse in St. John Ambulance because it had in place a compliant safeguarding statement for children, when the Shannon review has arrived at a very different conclusion? Tusla has stated it had no information available to suggest there was any child currently at risk in St. John Ambulance. However, even after the St. John Ambulance disclosures were first reported in The Irish Timesin September 2020, Tusla, following a meeting with the organisation, advised it did not have any concerns with its management of past abuse allegations. It was satisfied the organisation had adequate safeguarding measures in place. I know the Minister cannot answer this question today but how did we get it so wrong? That is what we need to answer so we never find ourselves in this situation again. I look forward to hearing from the Minister. I ask him to clarify one matter. Senator Dolan mentioned a support line. I think it is a reporting line that exists. I want to clarify that. It is more of a report line, rather than a support line for people calling for support in relation to sexual abuse. I would like clarification on that to ensure accuracy.