Scouting Ireland criticised the State child and family agency Tusla as “totally incompetent and unprofessional” in private correspondence to Minister for Children Katherine Zappone’s officials, after the agency raised child protection concerns with the youth organisation. In February, Tusla wrote to Scouting Ireland expressing concerns over supervision standards on overnight camps. Ian Elliott, the organisation’s interim safeguarding manager, wrote to Ms Zappone’s department, stating Tusla’s letter “appears to have been written to follow an agenda” of harming Scouting Ireland. Scouting Ireland officials had refrained from openly criticising Tusla during the controversy, while defending standards in the organisation. The agency’s assessment that Scouting Ireland had inappropriately handled recent cases of alleged youth-on-youth abuse was “simply wrong”, he said.

Source: The Irish Times April 05, 2019 01:52 UTC