Tusla ‘not assured’ over child protection standards in St John Ambulance

Tusla, the State child and family agency, has said it could not be assured about current child protection standards in St John Ambulance, given the recent damning report into historical child sex abuse in the first aid organisation.

The independent report, by Dr Geoffrey Shannon SC, found the voluntary organisation had for years failed to act on concerns children were being sexually abused by a former senior officer.

There was significant knowledge of the risk posed by the former senior figure in its Old Kilmainham division in Dublin, who is now accused of molesting more than 16 boys between the late 1960s and the 1990s.

The report, published last month, found the current culture of the organisation also posed an ongoing threat to keeping children safe, raising alarm at several contemporary child protection cases.

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Addressing the Oireachtas Committee on Children on Tuesday, Kate Duggan, interim chief executive of Tusla, said the findings of the report were “shocking”.

“In relation to child protection standards in St John Ambulance, we couldn’t today say we are assured in the context of Dr Shannon’s report [that] has made very significant findings in relation to the culture,” she said.

“It takes quite a significant time to change a culture in an organisation,” she told politicians.

The interim Tusla chief said it was positive that St John Ambulance had agreed to introduce all reforms recommended by Dr Shannon. “All of that provides a level of assurance, but we continue to engage with them in relation to their policies and procedures,” she said.

Tusla had previously investigated allegations from two men that they had been sexually abused by the former senior figure in Old Kilmainham as children, and it deemed both to be founded.

In subsequent correspondence in 2019 the agency said it did not believe abuse had been systemic, and that officials had no concerns about current standards in St John Ambulance.

Responding to questions on those previous assurances, Ger Brophy, chief social worker in Tusla, said the Shannon report had detailed “features of systemic abuse” within St John Ambulance.

Fine Gael Senator Mary Seery Kearney said while the organisation publicly stated it had accepted the report, it was “vigorously defending” civil claims for compensation from survivors.

It appeared that unless Tusla was directly funding a youth organisation, the agency was “completely toothless” when it came to oversight, she said.

Independent Senator Lynn Ruane said there were potentially some senior members in the St John Ambulance “who it is alleged... may have covered up” and been aware of past abuse.

Even if the alleged perpetrator had been removed, there was still a risk if individuals who had “turned a blind eye” remained in an organisation, she said.

Ms Duggan said Tusla had put “significant pressure” on St John Ambulance to carry out the independent review.

Dr Shannon was commissioned to conduct the work in early 2021, following reporting in The Irish Times detailing the past abuse.

Tusla told the committee it was limited to reviewing a youth organisation’s “child safeguarding statement”, which sets out how it proposes to manage potential risks.

It did not have powers to “compel” organisations to share their internal child protection policies, outside of supplying the required safeguarding statement, Ms Duggan said.

Green Party TD Patrick Costello said policies on paper were “next to useless” if they were not followed properly.

There was a need for Tusla to have a “big stick” and be able to go and inspect organisations, to improve compliance with required standards, he said.

Tusla was open to a discussion on any “possible extension of powers” legislated for by the Oireachtas, Ms Duggan said.

Mike Corcoran, head of regulatory enforcement at Tusla, said organisations being aware they could be inspected would “focus the mind”. Addressing “complacency” when it came to child protection was crucially important, he said.