A report into how a childcare lecturer retained his job despite a conviction for sexual assault against minors has been issued by the Health Service Executive (HSE).
Dr Niall McElwee, former head of childcare and learning at Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT), resigned in July 2007 after admitting that he was convicted of two counts of attempted indecent assault involving four teenage American girls at a hotel in Amsterdam while on a study tour in June 2004.
In commissioning its report the HSE sought to establish the extent to which child protection procedures were adhered to by former Midland Health Board staff when they became aware of Dr McElwee¿s conviction.
The report concluded that the relevant personnel who became aware of the incident did not inform the designated child protection and social work staff in accordance with the Children First Guidelines.
Dr McElwee received a suspended sentence and a fine from the Dutch authorities in September 2005 but continued in his post at AIT until last year when he resigned after he was threatened with having the conviction made public.
It later emerged that a garda who accompanied Dr McElwee on his trip to the Netherlands, informed senior gardaí and the Midland Health Board, as it was then known, of the conviction, but the information was not passed on to AIT.
The HSE said this afternoon it was committed to addressing the recommendations in the review.
¿The learning from this report will feed into our ongoing evaluation of how we deliver our childcare services and specifically towards the HSE¿s input into the current review of the Children First Guidelines,¿ said Jim Breslin, national director of the HSE.
Minister for Children, Brendan Smith welcomed the publication of the review inquiry.
¿What happened in this case in relation to adherence to Children First is extremely regrettable. However, I believe the findings of the review to be a clear vindication of these child protection guidelines," he said.
Opposition parties said the report raised serious questions about the operation of child protection measures.
"Parents will find it hard to understand how no action was taken despite the then Midlands Health Board and the Gardai being notified of it within days of its occurrence in Holland in June 2004. This was a serious incident involving violence and indecent acts," said the Labour Party's spokesperson on children, Senator Alex White.
"We must now learn the lessons of this affair and ensure that not only are appropriate procedures in place, but that they are acted upon when incidents like this occur," he added.
Elsewhere, Fine Gael's Education spokesman, Brian Hayes called on the Government to put into statutory format their own policies on child protection as set out in the `Children¿s First¿ policy.
¿This case highlights the systemic failure on all State agencies to take the issue of child protection seriously. There were clear concerns about this individual dating back to 1997 and the publication of today¿s report, some 10 years later, highlights the complete incompetence and lack of responsibility on the part of all State Agencies," said Mr Hayes.
"We now must put into primary law a clear responsibility on the part of all public agencies to comply with national policy on child protection. That means a clear legal obligation on the part of each Agency to exchange information on an inter-agency basis in respect of any concern about the risk of sexual abuse of children.¿
