Mr. Justin Kelly:

I have a couple of things to add to that. An Garda Síochána and Tusla are obviously extremely close partners in this area of work. A full-time senior member of Tusla is embedded in the Garda National Protective Services Bureau, which Mr. Noonan is in charge of, working with him and his team on a number of joint projects. We have that in place. At a strategic level, once a quarter, Ms Duggan from Tusla and I jointly chair a strategic meeting, bringing together all the senior leaders of Tusla and An Garda Síochána who work in this area. There is a work plan beneath all of that. At the local level, senior management within the Garda divisions I spoke about earlier have regular meetings. They are monitored by Mr. Noonan's unit and the Tusla personnel attached to the GNPSB. The part that is probably most important is the on-the-ground level and the divisional protective services units the Deputy referred to. He mentioned engaging once a week but some of these DPSUs interact with their Tusla colleagues every day. They know the people in their local areas extremely well. They all know each other. There are really good working relationships. At the strategic level, we are working on things like data sharing agreements, joint specialist interviewing and all of these really important areas. On the ground, the operational work and interaction between gardaí and social workers is absolutely excellent. They are getting the job done in really difficult circumstances. Even without a full-time social worker embedded in those units, the work is getting done really well.