Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to join in the comments made by the previous speakers, which I will not repeat. My questions follow on from the question of the retention of files raised by Deputy Ó Laoghaire, particularly where there is no evidence to support an allegation. Are those files retained or left open? What happens to them? Are they stored somewhere? Can Mr. McBride give us an update on that?

If I recall correctly, Mr. McBride mentioned 122,000 referrals, 51,000 of which related to abuse or neglect. What would be the general trend with regard to the other 70,000? Given the fact that there is a good deal of data and information involved in that amount of material, has Mr. McBride identified any trends regarding the figures with a view to pushing that back to us, as political representatives, to formulate something around prevention, in particular, and the mental health area that might integrate with it? We are always looking for research and we have databanks of information but identifying the trends from that seems to be an issue. If Mr. McBride has identified anything in that, I would be grateful if he could share it with us.