Survivor of St John Ambulance abuse accuses politicians of ignoring 'lads from the flats' 

A 230-page report included accounts of predatory and abusive behaviour in St John Ambulance, dating as far back as the early 1970s.

A survivor of sexual abuse at the St John Ambulance has accused an Oireachtas committee of ignoring him and other victims because they are "lads from the flats".

Mick Finnegan has written to the Oireachtas Children's Committee asking that the trustees of St John Ambulance be brought in to answer questions on the pace of reform in light of a damning report by Geoffrey Shannon earlier this year. 

In March, Mr Shannon's report found that St John Ambulance failed to properly intervene or investigate suspicions or knowledge of child protection risks, despite those risks being highly visible.

The report also highlights a failure by the organisation to carry out any formal investigation following full disclosure of serious grooming and child sexual abuse in the late 1990s. The organisation “could have, and should have, investigated suspicions and complaints of serious misconduct and victimisation”, the review says.

Fine Gael senators Regina Doherty and Mary Seery Kearney had asked the committee to consider bringing trustees before the committee because they believe that the reforms called for in the report are "too slow", but, in response, the committee's clerk gave an outline of the safeguarding work underway at the organisation. 

It said that Minister Roderic O'Gorman has been advised that "all adults within St John Ambulance have been appropriately vetted, including through Garda vetting and that the appropriate Tusla online safeguarding training certification has now been completed" and that two longstanding board members, including the independent chair, had stepped down.

Treatment of survivors

However, Mr Finnegan has written to the committee's chair, Kathleen Funchion, saying there is a major disparity between how he and other survivors of abuse at St John are treated in comparison to those who suffered at the hands of the Spiritan religious order at Blackrock College.

"It pains me to observe the significant outpouring of political support present for other survivors of horrendous abuse within different organisations such as Blackrock College and then note its absence when it comes to the lads from the flats.

"Not only does this highlight the disparity that exists within our society, but it sends a message to people from socio-economically deprived areas that we're not worthy of the same support from public representatives despite crying out and asking for help.

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"All we want is real accountability and every member that was a senior officer that sits on the board to step down and let the good, honest and hardworking volunteers take over and continue the good work the organisation does and has done for well over 100 years in this country."

Mr Finnegan told the Irish Examiner that he had felt a wave of support from politicians when the report was published "but now nobody is around".

"The impact on me constantly bringing it up has been massive. I'm exhausted. The report has had a massively detrimental effect on me. and my life, but this isn't about me, this is much bigger than me. There's loads of survivors. I've been the public face of it and I feel so guilty because I told the survivors they would get accountability. But nobody seems to want to help us."