Scouting Ireland tells members insurers are disputing liability for abuse settlements

Scouting Ireland’s insurers have disputed aspects of its liability to cover the cost of settlements made to survivors of historical child sex abuse in legacy scouting bodies.

The youth organisation is facing legal cases from more than 40 survivors who were allegedly sexually abused as children by scout leaders.

Scouting Ireland and its insurers, Allianz, are set to enter an arbitration process over the disputed extent to which its insurance policies provide cover for current legal cases taken by abuse survivors.

More than 350 people were allegedly sexually abused as children in the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI) and Scout Association of Ireland (SAI), which merged to form Scouting Ireland in 2004.

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Scouting Ireland tells members insurers are disputing liability for abuse settlements

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An independent review identified more than 275 alleged perpetrators accused of molesting children, with much of the alleged abuse taking place between the 1960s and 1990s.

Pat Kidney, chair of the organisation’s board, said Scouting Ireland and its predecessor bodies had always maintained proper insurance cover, but this was being disputed by Allianz.

In a statement to members after the organistaion’s Annual General Meeting on Saturday, Mr Kidney said the board had spent “significant time and effort to secure the value that we believe these insurance policies provide”.

An independent arbitrator would be appointed to “rule on the matters in dispute,” he said. “The process will examine evidence from both parties and is likely to take many months,” he added.

One senior Scouting Ireland source said while there were clear records of insurance cover for CBSI, records from the other former scouting body, SAI, were poor.

“We know that some survivors are pursuing redress through the courts, and we recognise that this is a difficult time for anyone taking action against Scouting Ireland,” Mr Kidney said.

The arbitration process was crucial to the organisation’s “future capacity to support those who have been failed in Scouting in the past and to deliver services to young people today,” he said.

“We recognise the bravery of those who came forward and we believe their stories, and how they were failed in Scouting … We want to meet our duties to all our members – past, present and future,” he said. The organisation remained committed to offering support, such as counselling, to survivors, he added.

Scouting Ireland has set aside a liability in its own financial accounts of more than €6 million to cover the costs of legal claims from survivors.

The historical child sex abuse scandal first emerged in 2018, after growing numbers of survivors began contacting Scouting Ireland to disclose past abuse, following reports in The Irish Times about safeguarding and governance controversies facing the current organisation.

An independent report by child protection expert Ian Elliott, published in 2020, found the past sexual abuse had been tolerated at the highest levels of the legacy scouting organisations. The abuse had also been covered up for decades to protect the reputation of the scouting movement, it said.

Scouting Ireland has been criticised by solicitors representing alleged survivors, who have claimed its legal approach to date has been to robustly defend cases. The organisation has said it cannot comment on matters before the courts.