Ms Kate Duggan:

I will ask Mr. Corcoran to join me in this contribution but I believe it is certainly around first recognising that this had been about abuse which was suffered in the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s and up to the 1990s. This certainly provides a context for us around those very obvious organisational matters which we all need to be aware of. What we are talking about today is where the Shannon report talked about the level of risk and the culture of an organisation being the most significant risk, apart from the intentions of the individual perpetrator. It is the culture of that organisation which is the most significant risk and this is very much around that absolute collective communication and proactive work with organisations. This is not trying to dilute the powers for Tusla or that it is shirking any responsibility, be it additional responsibility given to it or what the legislators may decide is needed in light of this report. It is around those additional resources to ensure organisations are aware.

For most organisations, it is like any issue, where a policy or procedure is only worth the paper it is written on. We must all be factually correct in that regard. We can have a HIQA inspection report that today is fully compliant, and we have had an example of this just in the past year in our own organisation. On the particular day of the HIQA inspection, we were compliant with all of the standards and, within six months, we were escalated in respect of non-compliance because of changes in the environment due to an individual. That demonstrates that the policy and procedures are one thing but it is the implementation, the governance, the checking and the culture to support it that are important.

If we were to give 5,000 inspectors to Tusla in the morning to inspect all of the organisations and the use of the resources in that way, we would perhaps increase and create a certain level of additional protection, but it is fundamentally back to awareness and a culture of disclosure within an organisation involving volunteers, staff members, children and young people themselves. We are also very cognisant that in respect of the abuse we are concerned about which was suffered and perpetrated in the 70s, 80s and 90s, we are now facing a new type of abuse. This is online abuse, sexual exploitation, with increased global movement, and not just sexual but child exploitation, and human and child trafficking. It is about what we have learned from the past with regard to what we do today, but also with an eye to what the future risks are going to be in respect of protecting and safeguarding children. Would Mr. Corcoran like to make a contribution here?