Ireland’s safeguarding structures compare well with those across Europe, but a new EU-funded study raises questions about how effectively they are monitored.
The findings were published this week as Oireachtas Committee hearings put safeguarding oversight across Irish sport in a strong spotlight.
An investigation into inconsistencies in the FAI’s safeguarding records has led Sport Ireland to ask every publicly funded National Governing Body to review its own arrangements and provide fresh assurances by next Friday, November 20.
The European SAFE project has published a comparative analysis of safeguarding in sport across Europe. Thankfully it paints a largely positive picture of Ireland’s existing structures.
The researchers recognise the work done through Sport Ireland’s safeguarding guidance, the training provided to clubs and the legal responsibilities established under the Children First Act. Ireland has, by European standards, a well-developed system.
The report is more questioning about the amount of documentation involved and whether the emphasis on compliance can sometimes get in the way of checking how well the system actually works.
European Lessons
Other European countries have taken different approaches, and there may be lessons for Ireland in some of them.
Austria, for example, has an independent service called vera, where athletes, parents, and others involved in sport can seek confidential advice or raise concerns without going through their own club or governing body.
Britain’s Child Protection in Sport Unit, run by the NSPCC, has spent more than twenty years providing specialist advice and support to sporting organisations.
Sport is organised differently in each country, but the common thread is an effort to make safeguarding easier to apply and to provide independent reassurance that the arrangements are working.
That is particularly relevant at grassroots level, where much of the responsibility rests with volunteers who may have limited experience of dealing with difficult safeguarding issues. Anyone who has completed the required Safeguarding course will know it goes into some dark areas, and this can be uncomfortable, if necessary, for anyone new to working with children or vulnerable adults.
The Oireachtas hearings have concentrated attention on Garda vetting, though Garda representatives were careful to point out that vetting is only part of the picture.
Clubs also need to recognise inappropriate behaviour, manage relationships between coaches and players, and deal properly with concerns when they arise. That can become especially difficult in smaller clubs where the people involved may have known one another for years.
Access to independent advice, as in Austria, could be a useful addition to the Irish system.
The SAFE study also considers safeguarding for adults, where arrangements are generally less developed than those protecting children. The growing attention being paid to harassment and the relationships between coaches and athletes suggests this will become a bigger part of the conversation in the years ahead.
For now, much will depend on what Sport Ireland learns from the review of governing bodies due next week. If the FAI issues prove to be isolated, that will provide some reassurance. If similar problems emerge elsewhere, the case for stronger independent checks will become harder to ignore.
Either way, there is value in looking at what other countries are doing.
Ireland has put considerable effort into establishing safeguarding standards, and the European study acknowledges that work. The questions raised this week are less about the standards themselves than about how confident Sport Ireland can be that they are being applied consistently.
That is where the next phase of work is likely to be needed, ideally with more support for clubs rather than simply more forms for volunteers to complete.
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