Mr. David Joyce:

The Leas-Chathaoirleach has made the very pertinent point that often people get worn out by the process. He also said they will seek help from a TD or a local councillor. A large part of this comes back to accountability for the person and to protection. A fear of retaliation by a judge or garda, or by the Garda or the Judiciary, came from the participants in the research. This was a key reason for not using the complaints system that is in place. It speaks to a lack of trust in the systems. It also speaks to a belief that nothing would come of it. It is important to say the lack of awareness of how to begin the process of making a complaint came up a lot. While the structures are there, there is a lack of trust in them, there is a fear of retaliation and there is a lack of awareness of them. All of these need to be addressed.