Ms Leanne Caulfield:

With regards to data, we get our figures from the national safeguarding office of the HSE, which reports annually on the figures, and the concerns of abuse or suspected neglect that were reported to the HSE in the previous year. That includes concerns that were reported to the safeguarding and protection teams within the various community and healthcare organisations.

We are restricted to the breakdown of the data provided by the HSE. It generally breaks down the data by age group and abuse type, and by the type of care from which the report was made, rather than the setting. For example, it might specify that it is from healthcare or social care but it generally will not disclose the type of residential setting from which the report came. Therefore, we are restricted in the number of complaints coming from disability settings, in which the Deputy is particularly interested. The lack of a comprehensive data set is an issue. It comes down to the referral pathways, and a lack of knowledge about who people should report to when they have a concern. That is something about which the commission is most concerned and is why the commission is looking at the issue of data collection and referral pathways within the scope of the report. It is most important to have clear reporting pathways and referral pathways, and clearer data collection measures that are limited not just to one body. Interagency collaboration, whereby one body refers on to another, knows which body it should refer to and can identify the central data collector, is important. That would ensure that we have a comprehensive data set. In its absence, we are reliant on the annual data from the HSE national safeguarding office, which is helpful but is not comprehensive. We are also reliant on ad hoc pieces of research that are commissioned and funded by various bodies, including Safeguarding Ireland or the Banking and Payments Federation, all of which are useful but which do not provide us with a comprehensive picture, which could be the case if we had a clear system for data collection in place and clear referral pathways.