Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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428. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if her attention has been drawn to the fact that there are sporting organisations operating here under the governance and child protection arrangements and guidelines from another jurisdiction; if her attention has been further drawn to the fact that these organisations are not adhering to the Children First guidelines; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38432/18]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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429. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the steps that have been taken to ensure that the Children First guidelines are followed by organisations in which children are members that are governed by rules and guidelines from another jurisdiction; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38433/18]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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430. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if her attention has been drawn to the conditions that can or should be applied to sporting organisations hosting competitions or other such activities in which children are involved to ensure that the Children First guidelines are followed; if there are conditions attached to licensing such activity; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38434/18]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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431. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the person or organisation that has responsibility for ensuring that the Children First guidelines are observed in sporting organisations in cases in which the governing body, the competition and other rules are set in another jurisdiction; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38435/18]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 428 to 431, inclusive, together.

The Children First Act 2015, which was fully commenced in December 2017, provides for a number of key child protection measures, including raising awareness of child abuse and neglect, providing for reporting and management of child protection concerns and improving child protection arrangements in organisations providing services to children.

The Act places a number of statutory obligations on organisations providing relevant services to children. These obligations include: a requirement to keep children safe from harm while they are availing of the service; a requirement to carry out a risk assessment, and, a requirement to prepare a child safeguarding statement which sets out the policies and procedures which are in place to mitigate these risks.

The Act operates side-by-side with the non-statutory obligations provided for in Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children. The guidance sets out definitions of abuse, and signs for its recognition. It explains how reports about reasonable concerns of child abuse or neglect should be made by the general public and professionals to Tusla. It sets out what organisations need to do to keep children safe. It also describes the obligations under the Children First Act 2015 and who they attach to. These guidelines have been in place since 1999 and were fully revised and published in October 2017 to include reference to the provisions of the Act.

The statutory obligations in the Children First Act apply to both public and private sector organisations providing relevant services to children operating in this jurisdiction, regardless of where an organisation’s governing body is located. The relevant services to children that attract an obligation to produce a child safeguarding statement are set out in schedule 1 of the Act.

Sections 12 and 13 of the Act make provision for the Child and Family Agency to establish and maintain a register of non-compliance for providers of relevant services who fail to provide a copy of the Child Safeguarding Statement to Tusla when requested to do so. A new Child Safeguarding Compliance Unit has recently been established within Tusla. As this is a new statutory obligation for many organisations, Tusla is focusing on encouraging and supporting providers of relevant services to meet their statutory obligations and it will endeavour only to place relevant service providers on the register where a supportive approach has proved unsuccessful.

In addition, section 27 requires each Government Department to prepare and publish a sectorial implementation plan that outlines the programme of measures to be taken to ensure that the Department, and any body that provides a relevant service and receives funding from that Department, comply with the provisions of the Act.

The key principle of Children First is that child protection issues are the responsibility of all and that child safety and welfare concerns must be dealt with as and where they arise. In this regard the specific issues raised by the Deputy relating to sporting organisations come within the remit of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.