St Pats is fully committed to creating and maintaining the safest possible environment for all children and young people who participate in our activities, and also for the adults who assist and mentor these children & young people.

We do our utmost to take all practical steps to safeguard children and young people from any discernable forms of abuse, harm, discrimination or degrading treatment and in so far as is practically possible, we provide a safe environment for them.

St Pats has a designated Children’s Officer and a Designated Liaison Officer (details below) whose appointments are central to the GAA Child welfare strategy. We would ask everyone involved with the club to support and cooperate with them in their important duties.

Children’s Officer: Sheila McGuinness - childrensofficer.stpatricksdonabate.dublin@gaa.ie

Designated Liaison Officer: Lorraine Halpin - chairperson.stpatricksdonabate.dublin@gaa.ie

 

The Designated Liaison Person is available and shall be responsible at an initial stage for dealing with any concerns relating to the possible abuse of children as reported or made known to them.

 

Vetting is a legal requirement pursuant to the National Vetting Bureau (Children & Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 – 2016. The Club has a statutory obligation to ensure that all those who undertake ‘relevant work’ with children are vetted.

The term ‘relevant work’ in the GAA/LGFA includes any role of responsibility such as coaching, managing or training underage teams or indeed adult teams that contain any player under 18 years of age. It also applies to organising underage activities or refereeing underage games.

SAFEGUARDING:
'Face-to-face Child Safeguarding 1 workshops take place in the club throughout the year. This certification is valid for a 3-year period and can be extended for a further 3 years by completing  the online refresher course within 6 weeks of expiry renewal date'. To be certified for the Safeguarding course you will first need to register with Tobar (https://learning.gaa.ie/user/register), the online Gaelic Games Learning Portal. You will be sent a link to enrol on the course via this platform. This is essential to receive your certificate. The course itself takes approximately 3 hours. Please contact childrensofficer.stpatricksdonabate.Dublin@gaa.ie for information on future courses.

 

Policies: 'further information on child safeguarding can be found on National GAA website:

Child Safeguarding Policy

Club Playing-Up Policy for Juvenile players