Mr. Mark Toland:

In my opening statement, I said it is one of the most serious crimes gardaí will ever deal with. Apart from a homicide, it is probably the most serious crime. One cannot expect an organisation to train 13,000 members to investigate that type of serious crime. We hope that it will have a protective services unit and train the members of this unit to a high level. They are starting to do the training. That is where we would like to see investigations sit in the future. It should not be for any of the other 13,000 Garda members, just those specialist officers.

Another piece that is missing is that Tusla and the Garda Síochána did joint training between social workers and Garda members when Children First was launched. That was a good piece of training. We have recommended that should be replicated.

The protective services unit will become a single point of contact for Tusla. At the moment, a Tusla senior manager has to contact several Garda superintendents across various districts. The new system will mean the Tusla senior manager will go straight to the head of the protective services unit. A much more linear communications train, rather than the current system, will be in place. That will help Tusla rather than having to work out in what area has a crime taken place and to which superintendent does a Tusla manager need to talk.