Scouting Ireland has funds stopped until board resigns
STATE funding for Scouting Ireland has been suspended until its board resigns, as it re-appointed a senior volunteer who is under investigation for his handling of a rape allegation.
Scouting Ireland’s EGM takes place on October 6, and the board have effectively been given a choice to step down and save the organisation, or cling on to their positions and risk it collapsing.
On Saturday, Chief Scout Christy McCann was chosen by the board to chair the upcoming EGM, despite having stood down in April pending the outcome of an inquiry over the handling of the allegation which made claims about another individual.
Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone yesterday called for the entire board of directors to step aside, and said funding will be withheld until they do.
Minister Zappone said she was ‘very concerned’ to have been contacted by the board’s interim chair, Annette Byrne, who said she could no longer stand over assurances previously given about introducing robust change in governance.
‘I’m suspending the funding while the current board is in place. It is effectively up to Scouting Ireland, the organisation itself, to fix this incredible difficulty that has arisen in light of what happened last Saturday. They have it within their hands to do that,’ Ms Zappone said.
She added: ‘This is a crucial moment for Scouting Ireland – I urge the directors to do the right thing for the future of the organisation and for the future of scouting in this country and to serve the best interests of young people.’
Funding worth €900,000 a year was suspended in April on the back of a report by barrister Ian Elliot into a 2016 allegation by a woman who claimed she was raped on a camping trip when she was 18.
In June, Minister Zappone temporarily released €220,000 following a commitment that the four board members under investigation for their handling of the claim would resign at the October EGM. Mr McCann had stepped aside in April, but was voted back in to chair the October meeting.
At Saturday’s board meeting, three other members, also under investigation over the handling of the allegation, lost a motion to be reinstated by a single vote.
It followed concerns that Scouting Ireland would be forced to shut down within weeks without the funding.
Interim chair Annette Byrne said: ‘Four months ago I gave Minister Zappone clear commitments, and this morning I had to write to her and say I could not guarantee that those commitments would be delivered on.’
Minister Zappone said that based on her conversations with Ms Byrne and Mr Elliot, she could no longer stand over a situation where the governance of the organisation put young people at risk.
‘Mr Elliot, who has worked in the area of child safeguarding for more than four decades, was appalled by last Saturday’s decision and it reinforced for him the view that there are directors who have consistently sought to obstruct essential change within the organisation,’ she said.
‘He pointed out his strong view that bad governance generates risk to young people. I cannot accept such a situation.’
But she added: ‘The actions I am taking today stem from bad governance and are in no way connected to the fantastic work being carried out by Scout groups throughout the country.’
Labour spokesman on Children, Seán Sherlock said Scouting Ireland needed take responsibility for what had happened. ‘Clearly, lessons around proper governance have not been learned within the upper echelons of Scouting Ireland,’ he said.
Scouting Ireland has not replied to a request for comment.
‘I urge directors to do right thing’ ‘Lessons have not been learned’