Mr. Mark Toland:

We have been told by the national unit that eventually those 12 divisions gave their responses. We waited five months, a period we believe was far more reasonable than would have been expected. Non-compliance is an issue for the Garda Commissioner. The most important thing is that the 105 cases need to be investigated properly and progressed. We met the acting Garda Commissioner and his top team recently to talk about all our work, including our work on child sexual abuse. We have regular meetings now with the Policing Authority. The authority asked us to give an opinion on whether recommendations have been implemented to our satisfaction. We believe that is a good process and we are fully involved in it.

We do not know how the implementation group will interact with us on this child abuse report but we are keen to offer our services and opinion on whether something has been implemented. This is the first time that we have gone back and forensically looked at a block of work. We believe it gives a good flavour of the position of An Garda Síochána and Tusla. We believe this is a good approach that we should undertake in future.