Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will put it another way because I am anxious to move to a different topic. When the witnesses are before the committee again and if there are similar delays, it will be harder to accept their response if they have not made a clear request to the Minister, the Department and the system. I will leave it at that.

I am anxious to talk about children, cases GSOC deals with that involve those under 18 years of age. I am anxious because any type of attack or assault on a child is utterly unacceptable in society, and for it to be perpetrated by a member of An Garda Síochána is particularly unacceptable. First, is there a specific policy or piece of work GSOC has done which includes assaults by members of the Garda on children? Second, are there different procedures for dealing with children in investigation cases? Third, I have heard some reports that children who are making a complaint are questioned with no advocate present. There is no member of their family or no solicitor, yet the person about whom the complaint is being made would obviously have somebody there. For a young person under 18 years of age, I would imagine that it is very intimidating to be alone in that situation and I would be surprised if that is a procedure GSOC has for a complainant. Perhaps it might be different for somebody who is the subject of abuse or in that area, but this is a complainant about an assault. This relates to children and I apologise that the witnesses have only three minutes to reply.