Dr. Niall Muldoon:

I will respond to Deputy McLellan's question. In terms of statistics, the annual report for 2013 will be out soon. We have seen an increase in complaints. We started in April 2004 and there were 94 complaints in the first year. Complaints have steadily risen and since 2010 we have seen an increase of approximately 16% up to last year which, shows that complaints have increased in recent years. The average number of complaints is approximately 1,600 per year. To June of this year we have seen an increase of 6% on last year. We are working hard to increase the awareness of the office in various population groups. We are trying to link in with as many different populations to make them aware of our existence and, accordingly, that has resulted in a considerable increase in reporting to us.

The majority of complaints are addressed fairly quickly. Many of them require signposting only and do not always end up in an investigation. The majority of cases are dealt with in the first four to six weeks while more complicated preliminary inquiries and investigations can take anywhere from two months to a couple of years. Cases are wide-ranging but the majority of our work is done very quickly. More complicated investigations are based on our remit to be neither an advocate for a child or an adversary to a public body that involves a lot of fair play. We would engage in toing and froing with a public body to ensure we investigate cases in the most appropriate and fair manner. That takes a bit of time and it is only at the stage when the interaction with the public body is done that we can conclude an investigation. We are working hard to speed up investigations and to reduce the time taken to approximately 12 months. We are not quite there yet but we are working on it. Perhaps Ms O’Shea would respond on the questions about Garda and HSE co-operation.