Mr. Bernard Gloster:

In May 2020, a significant event widely reported in the media was reported to me, in respect of our Kerry services and notifications to the Garda. When a social work service does not make a timely notification to the Garda, it might be that it is working the case in great detail and is waiting to tidy up some information, but the Kerry situation was indicative of a significant problem. I was not assured that we could satisfy ourselves by just responding to the Kerry incident, so we did a national self-assessment audit with our 17 area managers. We arrived at a position where the best estimate we had was approximately 12% to 13% of what legitimately should be notified to the Garda as suspected abuse was not being or had not been notified on time. We have put in place significant correction and audit measures to check that is now more effective. Of course, there will always be individual incidents and slips, given the number of notifications we make to the Garda and the number we receive. Apart from the corrective action taken on the Kerry situation, there is also a disciplinary action by way of an investigation, which is just about to come to conclusion.