Mr. Cormac Quinlan:

Getting the message about public awareness right at the beginning is very important to reassure people and provide clarity on those issues. If the message is wrong at the start we will set ourselves up to be in the default position of having to deal with difficult cases that may arise, hopefully only a few. We are raising the issue of compelling reasons in order to have absolute clarity.

I agree identity and contact are different things and the message in the public awareness campaign needs to support people’s understanding of that.

I would like clarity on what authority we have to take such steps in situations where there are limits, by virtue of data protection or otherwise, to accessing information that would support us and allow us to trace or find someone in that context.

On the consistency issues, moving the service to a national one since January 2014 has been a journey. We are getting there and we are nearly there. We are improving consistency and standardisation. Training is a part of that and, as Mr. McBride reflected in his report, we have specific working groups established that are looking at the public awareness campaign, information and tracing, and the register. Our staff within the adoption service are working on this, and we are developing people's thinking so that the response is a positive, affirming one. I want people to have confidence in social workers in the organisation and to be able to come to us as well as using other services. We want to ensure that Tusla inspires that sense of confidence and openness.

The metrics are reported on our website and are accessible. In terms of openness and transparency, if people are looking for information, I would ask them to go there. I hope people will find some of the specific information they are seeking.