Report may be published later

New cases have come to light in the report of the inquiry into child sexual abuse in swimming which is expected to be published later today. This was signalled by the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Dr McDaid, at a press briefing last night.

Asked if there were more swimming coaches involved in sexual abuse "than the two we know of" the Minister said "there are indications in the report that they were not the only ones".

The report showed that there was "a total systems failure within the Irish Amateur Swimming Association", the Minister said. "There were no standards for behaviour at all."

The Government decided yesterday to submit the complete report of 165 pages for urgent consideration by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Sport and Recreation at 4 p.m. today. "It is as good as, if not better than, the Kelly Fitzgerald or Kilkenny incest cases," Dr McDaid said.

On legal advice, the Minister hopes to publish the report under the aegis of the committee to give it the protection of qualified privilege. He confirmed that he had already been threatened with legal action if the report was published.

The necessary arrangements were being made with the chairman of the committee, Mr Michael Ferris, to give effect to this decision last night. Motions will have to be moved in the Dail and Seanad today before the report can be referred.

The Attorney General's Office was also contacting the legal representatives of victims to inform them of the findings of the three-month inquiry conducted by Dr Roderick Murphy SC, chairman of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

The Minister confirmed last night that Dr Murphy has listed well over 100 specific recommendations, the vast bulk of them related to the organisation of the sport of swimming in Ireland. They ranged from recommended revisions in organisational structures and in selection, appointment and functions of officers to clearer complaint procedures in the organisation and conditions of employment for coaches.

Dr Murphy also made recommendations about the Safety, Health and Welfare of Work Act, mandatory reporting, and education and training programmes for the establishment and verification of child sexual abuse.

He heard evidence for almost three months from more than 70 witnesses, including swimmers, parents, coaches, club committee members and officials of the IASA and its Leinster branch. The inquiry also undertook examination of a large number of documents, papers and correspondence.

Describing the report as "quite frightening", Dr McDaid said that children did not come forward about sex abuse because they felt it would be disloyal, they would be embarrassed or ridiculed, and "they felt it was a normal part of their training".

The Minister said that he would be asking the IASA for its considered response to the recommendations so that he would be in a position, as soon as possible, to consider funding for swimming for 1998. He suspended funding of the IASA on February 3rd before the inquiry was set up.

In making any future funding decisions in relation to the IASA, Dr McDaid indicated, he would be having special regard to the inquiry's recommendations on the priority that urgently needed to be given to reorganisation and training.

He is also concerned that the association's membership should be making a greater contribution to, and have a greater say and involvement in, the running of their own national governing body. The growing reliance of the IASA on external sources of funding, such as the State, in recent years - as confirmed in the report - was a worrying trend and not conducive to widespread engagement of members in how the organisation was run.

Although there is no specific recommendation in the report on the voluntary code of ethics and good practice for children's sport in Ireland, published in June 1996, Dr McDaid intends to reconvene the committee which prepared it for the purpose of reviewing its contents in the light of the inquiry's findings.

The Sports Council and the National College for Coaching and Training will be arranging for this review to be followed by a special seminar for all recognised national governing bodies of sport which were issued with the code two years ago.

A leading swimming coach, Derry O'Rourke, was imprisoned earlier this year for 12 years after pleading guilty to 29 offences against 11 girls between 1976 and 1992.