An inquiry commissioned by the HSE has published its report on Athlone Institute of Technology lecturer Niall McElwee.
Mr McElwee, a childcare lecturer, was able to remain in his post two years after being convicted of serious sexual offences in Holland.
The report (download it here in pdf) has found that the HSE in the Midlands and gardaí were notified of the incident within days of it occurring in Amsterdam in June 2004.
The Minister for Children, Brendan Smith, said it was extremely regrettable that the National Guidelines on Child Welfare were not followed in at least some instances.
Mr Smith said his office had nearly completed a review of the guidelines involving all stakeholders.
In the meantime, senior officials would convene a meeting with the HSE, the gardaí and the Department of Education and Science to ensure that there is full awareness of child protection policies.
Dr Niall McElwee resigned from his post at the AIT in July 2007, after management there became aware of his conviction for attempted indecent assault on two young women in Holland.
The incident occurred in 2004 while he was on a health board-funded drugs research project.
The 200-page report by independent management consultant Conal Devine says that at least two officers of the then MHB were advised of the incident by Dr McElwee, within days of it occurring.
Dr McElwee was sentenced by Dutch authorities in September 2005 to a prison term of three months, suspended for two years, and was fined €2,000.
Amsterdam arrest
He was found to have, through acts of violence, tried to perform lewd acts, and in one case held one woman down to prevent her leaving the bed.
On the day Dr McElwee was arrested in Amsterdam, gardaí in Dublin were also notified by a liaison officer in Holland of the matter.
The report is heavily critical of the failure to follow basic child protection procedures and communication involving a range of State agencies.
It says that after the incident, Dr McElwee was permitted to go to Canada to continue his research, accompanied by two female members of the local health board.
His completed research project was launched by a Government minister in December 2004, with the health board's knowledge of the Amsterdam incident.
The report says that Dutch authorities wrote to the Department of Justice in the summer of 2004 giving authorities here the opportunity to prosecute Dr McElwee in Ireland, but the department said Holland was the more appropriate location.
The department did not notify the MHB or the Department of Health of the issue.
The report also says that a garda, who accompanied Dr McElwee to Amsterdam for his drugs research project in 2004, made no written report of the incident to the Midland Health Board but did notify his superiors.
The garda was not present during the incident in the Amsterdam hotel.
The report, commissioned by the Health Service Executive, says that if proper child protection measures had been followed, the outcome would have been clear in June 2004.
It notes that concerns were first raised by social workers in the South Eastern Health Board in 1997 about an interview Dr McElwee conducted with a woman in relation to research.
In 1999, the health board also raised concerns with the Waterford Institute of Technology about medical slides used by Dr McElwee.
