The alarming aspect of the whole unsavoury matter is that this wasn't the first time that the actions of this third level academic raised concerns . . . while lecturing at Waterford Institute of Technology in 1999, Dr McElwee was warned about showing explicit pictures of sexually abused children to students. Why didn't this set off alarm bells? What were the internal procedures in relation to disciplinary matters?

Last June, the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin announced expanded arrangements for the vetting of people with unsupervised access to children and vulnerable adults.

The ISPCC and Barnardos have been seeking for some years to have vetting of all persons involved in childcare placed on a proper statutory basis. They have also lobbied for legislation to allow gardai to provide not just criminal convictions but also 'soft' information regarding people who have been identified as a risk to children.

In this particular case, the warning signs were there in 1999. Dr McElwee slipped through the net again after his conviction in the Netherlands when, according to court documents, he propositioned one teenage girl for sexual favours and got into bed seminaked with another young girl.

The gardai informed the Midland Health Board of the matter, but it was not recorded or passed on to AIT.

There should have been a yellow flag placed on the file of Dr McElwee eight years ago.

There should have been a red flag when he received a criminal conviction for sex offences in 2005. And it should be the first job of the new Minister for Children Brendan Smith to ensure that proper procedures, underpinned by legislation, are put in place to ensure situations like this one simply cannot occur.