Mr. Drew Harris:

I am working off the first slide, which deals with what the Garda examination team found. As we work down the slide, it can be seen that just more than 100,000 of the referrals were deemed suitable for the diversion programme but also that just more than 55,000 referrals were deemed not suitable for it. It is within this group we have identified the issues. Of these 55,000, some 33,000 progress to a child being either charged or summoned. Of the remainder, some 22,000, there is no evidence of an associated charge or summons on PULSE. When we examine that, there is an explanation for the majority of those, but in 7,894 cases we are saying that these were not appropriately progressed. That is 5% of the overall referrals. We can go right to the top figure but we do not wish to diminish this because these 7,894 referrals relate to 3,489 separate children. This is a matter of some consequence. Although we were dealing with big figures, whenever we get it wrong, any percentage in this respect means there is a large number of individuals engaged in this matter.

I will move on to the next slide dealing with the impact on victims. There were 2,492 individual personal victims and 988 either organisational or business-type victims. As it states, some of these victims may have received a letter stating that a person had been identified in respect of an offence that had been reported. We also categorise the majority of the 73% of these crimes, which fall into four common crime categories of public order, theft, traffic or criminal damage, but there were serious crimes also alleged, one incident of rape, one incident of a sexual offence which was a sexual assault, one incident of child neglect and also others, including threats to kill, cultivation of cannabis and violent disorder. We would assess that the impact on the victims is profound. Even what we might regard as commonplace crimes can have a very heavy impact on individual victims. In our approach to this we have been very concerned in the way we approach and deal with this matter with victims.

Each victim, as appropriate, is receiving a letter specific to his or her case. I have moved on to the slide dealing with support for victims. The letter includes an apology. We have also provided contact details for the local Garda victim service office and the independent crime victim helpline. The victims are also given an option, if they receive a letter, of a personal visit by the local Garda team. We had a helpline which was open for two weeks and it received 35 calls and 16 emails. The victims of what people are judging to have been serious crimes are receiving a personal visit and this process is ongoing. So far, we have conducted 47 personal visits. Also, 4,567 letters have been sent out to victims, but we have also decided in a further 1,600 cases not to send a letter at the district level. That has been decided on the basis of the case. That has been in respect of the difficulty in identifying a victim with whom to engage.

We are also anxious not to revictimise people. In some cases we have ongoing engagement with these victims in various fora. We are very careful that we do not retraumatise or revictimise any individual. This is very much dealt with on a case-by-case, almost bespoke response, as appropriate.

I will move on to the impact on young people. As I have said, 3,489 children were associated with referrals not appropriately progressed. The vast majority of these children had a history of reoffending, which meant they had a lot of contact with An Garda Síochána before and after the incident that was not appropriately progressed.

Each of the children, if he or she is now an adult, or his or her guardian or parent, as appropriate, will receive a letter setting out the impact of the issue on them. That is ongoing. District officers have been speaking to parents and guardians in respect of the children as well.

The next slide concerns significant reduction and relates to 2017. As members will see from the bar chart and the line that runs through it, 96% of cases where there was a failure to act or where the cases were not appropriately actioned happened between 2010 and 2015. PULSE update 6.8 in November 2015, by and large, addressed the feedback loop in respect of those referrals. That is backed up by a subsequent update of PULSE, 7.3, and that makes a very significant difference. Even before we start our examination of this, system changes which we brought in on the back of an examination by the inspectorate to our overall investigatory processes had addressed this problem in terms of the feedback loop and significantly reduced the issue, but we have continued to focus on it, as one would expect.

The next slide sets out what those actions have been in terms of further action taken. There were further PULSE additions, in particular 7.3 in February 2018 and the extra supervision that brings. A new monitoring system for all youth referrals was introduced in November 2018. For the first time a national bureau for child diversion was established in December 2018 and a chief superintendent has been assigned to the bureau on a full-time basis. Staffing in the bureau was increased throughout 2018 and the staffing complement will be further increased in 2019.

Overall, in the organisation in 2018, there was a good increase in the number of sergeants and inspectors who were available for front-line supervision. Last month, in January 2019, new standard operating procedures for youth referrals were introduced, together with e-learning on the youth referral process. As of yesterday, 1,850 members had completed that process and we intend to make sure that the process is fully rolled out next week. This week an assistant commissioner was appointed on a full-time basis to the community engagement unit, which includes the youth diversion programme. The youth diversion programme will be subject to internal audit in the coming years. Overall, the youth diversion programme has worked well for many young people. It has brought major benefits to individuals and society. We hope we have enhanced and strengthened the system to make sure that this cannot happen again.

In terms of individual accountability, over the course of seven years, 3,414 Garda members were associated with not appropriately progressing referrals. Of those, 184 are no longer serving in the organisation. All referrals not progressed properly have been sent to the relevant divisional officer for them to consider in respect of discipline regulations. The process is ongoing. We will pay close attention to it and gather data. We will keep the committee and the Policing Authority updated. General guidance on disciplinary processes and penalties has been provided to all divisional officers, but that is a process for which they are responsible. Discipline in this matter is delegated to them and it comes under their responsibility to determine on the individual considerations in respect of discipline.

This is an interim report and in some ways we have only got to the halfway mark in that we have been able to describe what the problem is and what we can do to fix it. That is now in place. We now know the scale of the task in terms of engaging with the victims, and that process is ongoing. We understand the scale of the task in terms of addressing our organisational and individual accountability, which is ongoing and not finished yet.