Charity St Vincent de Paul allowed a new recruit to work with children without full police background checks last year, it emerged at an unfair dismissals hearing on Monday.
Former Human Resources manager Valerie McDonagh told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) that the organisation hired a 51-year-old man in May 2024 to work with children at Ozanam House in Dublin, without Garda and international police vetting.
She said the organisation unfairly dismissed her as HR services partner last July after she made protected disclosures about the man’s continued employment at Saint Vincent de Paul with no up-to-date police clearance.
The WRC adjudication heard that the man, referred to as CC, was Scottish and had worked in Thailand and Egypt, but never in the Republic.
St Vincent de Paul hired him to work at the Ozanam House early learning centre on May 20th last year.
Emails exchanged between Ms McDonagh and colleagues show that by June 10th, CC’s Garda vetting was not completed, and he had yet to produce up-to-date clearances from Thai, Egyptian, UK or Scottish authorities.
Ms McDonagh said the law obliged the charity to ensure vetting was rigorous and could not be “mitigated”, even though the organisation was short-staffed.
“I was concerned that we were not compliant and the gentleman was on site with access to children,” Ms McDonagh told the WRC adjudication.
St Vincent de Paul subsequently placed CC on paid “gardening” leave and then terminated his contract in July.
The charity maintains that he worked with children for just one week under close supervision before he was asked to step back pending the outcome of the vetting process.
It also says that it dismissed Ms McDonagh during her probationary period, which it was entitled to do.
St Vincent de Paul argues that CC was not “unvetted” and that there were insufficient grounds for Ms McDonagh to make protected disclosures.
These protect workers who report possible wrongdoing by their employer to State authorities.
She began working with St Vincent de Paul on April 23rd last year while it was restructuring the HR department.
Colleagues flagged the decision to hire CC on May 16th and she received his contract the following day.
She raised her concerns at his lack of up-to-date background checks with then head of human resources Briona Sheils, who responded that the organisation was short-staffed.
Ms McDonagh then brought the issue to St Vincent de Paul’s head of risk Jonathan O’Rourke and offered to do an audit detailing her concerns.
Her checks revealed that CC had used an alias and that he had left Egypt the previous March, despite telling St Vincent de Paul he had departed in May.
Ms McDonagh told the WRC that she regarded both those issues as “red flags”.
She claimed that CC blocked efforts to get him to provide a complete vetting procedure specific to Scotland, called an enhanced DBS.
He did provide background checks covering England, Wales and the Isle of Man and references from Thailand and Egypt.
Ms McDonagh maintained her proposal that the organisation audit the HR department for other possible risks left her “with a target on my back”.
She added that her priorities were always to protect the organisation’s care and to ensure it “followed the letter of the law”.
St Vincent de Paul ended her employment at her second probationary meeting on July 18th.
Ms Sheils cited difficulties with Ms McDonagh’s approach to communicating with colleagues, which the plaintiff said was not substantiated.
Ms Sheils, Geraldine McStravick, current head of HR, and Mr O’Rourke, attended Monday’s WRC hearing. The case has been adjourned until next May.
