Mr. James Walsh:

Again, it would depend on the nature of the incident. When one looks at the assault leave scheme, one could have an altercation between two staff members, between a parent and a teacher or an SNA or there could be an incident where a child with special needs may throw their hand back and make contact with a person and break their nose, for example, or something like that. The scheme does not need there to be any criminal or malicious intent but just that there is physical contact there. One may have instances where the involvement of the Garda is very much required and other instances where it is not, but that would be very much determined by the specific consequences, the individuals concerned and whether or not there was felt to be a requirement to refer the matter to the Garda. It is very much situation specific.