By: Michael O’Farrell
Investigations Editor
SIMON Harris repeatedly failed to respond to warnings that children at a St John of God special needs facility may be in danger, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The warnings were sent to the Health Minister in a Protected Disclosure from a senior childcare manager at the charity, who said that management failures there amounted to institutional and organisational abuse.
Mark Smyth – the Head of Childcare at St Augustine’s school between 2007 and 2016 – made the disclosure last November.
Read our guide on how to make a protected disclosure.
He and his childcare team at the school in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, were responsible for five residential houses catering for 30 children aged between eight and 18. In his disclosure, Mr Smyth told how he repeatedly raised concerns about alleged ‘systematic failures’ at meetings with his superiors.
‘In all of these meetings I clearly stated that I did not have a safe place to work and could not stand over the quality of services now being delivered by staff,’ his disclosure reads.
‘I stated that, as a parent, I would not put my own children into the service and as such I would not accept any new referrals from parents.’
Mr Smyth was sent an acknowledgement on November 22 last year that said the content of his letter had been noted. However, he followed up with calls to the minister’s office in December, January and March, in which he was assured the matter was in the hands of a ‘very senior official’, who would ‘review it and bring it to the minister’.
But it is now claimed the disclosure was misplaced. In the meantime he continued to write to Mr Harris. On April 18, he told the minister he felt he was being treated as Maurice McCabe had been treated by his Garda superiors. Eventually, after People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett intervened, the department said the disclosure had been misfiled.
On July 6, nine months after the disclosure was sent, the department wrote to Mr Smyth indicating it should be directed to the HSE. The lack of any apparent progress and the manner in which his concerns were treated have prompted Mr Smyth to make a Protected Disclosure to the MoS.
Mr Smyth also forwarded his concerns to the Ombudsman for Children, last month, copying in the Taoiseach, Disability Minister Finian McGrath and Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone.
That letter reads: ‘When a manager of a service for children walks away from the service because they would not put their own children in the care of the staff running the service then serious and immediate action should take place ‘However, several years later no action has taken place. I have raised my concerns at every level within St John of Gods.’
The background to his concerns involves a long-running series of complaints from colleagues at St Augustine’s. He said the charity failed to investigate these complaints or refer them to the appropriate authorities thereby neither clearing him nor ensuring that children in his care were safe.
He also alleges the resulting working environment at the childcare department put staff at risk and meant appropriate care was not being given to children. Unable to resolve his concerns Mr Smyth walked away from the role of Head of Childcare in 2016 and was allocated another St John of God position outside the school.
In May last year he was put on special leave. Since then the charity, funded by the taxpayer as a Section 38 organisation, has been paying Mr Smyth’s full salary, in excess of €100,000.
In October last year, a risk assessment of the psychological hazards in Mr Smyth’s place of work identified eight ‘red risks’ to him which required remedy, which have not apparently been rectified.
The MoS asked Minister Harris and the department what, if any, actions have been taken as a result of Mr Smyth’s disclosure.
The department said it does ‘not comment on individual Protected Disclosures which may have been submitted’.
In a statement to the MoS the HSE also said it could not comment on the ‘HR status of any employee’. The safety, welfare and development of clients is a core objective and key priority for the HSE and Saint John of God Community Services,’ the HSE statement said.
‘HSE Community Healthcare East has been assured by Saint of God Community Services that there are no specific concerns at present and will continue to be vigilant in this regard.’
A spokesperson for St John of God said the service was ‘not in receipt of the Protected Disclosure referred to, and is therefore not in a position to comment.’
‘Saint John of God Community Services has a policy of zero tolerance to child protection and safeguarding concerns and incidents,’ it said.
Read how to make a Protected Disclosure.
Click here for a video on the protections afforded by the Protected Disclosures Act.
