Alison Comyn (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

While I was very heartened that the witnesses were all going to attend today I am afraid that I have been left a little bit deflated, frustrated and disappointed. While we are talking about words from a thesaurus, I think we have had semantics today about the differences between "concerns", "complaints" and "allegations". The courage it takes to raise a concern of any type is immense. If any young girl or a mother or a sister or whoever it was came to the FAI with a concern that had already been discussed and maybe thought about for six months beforehand, it should be treated very seriously. That is what I would like to find out. Perhaps Ms Pakes can clarify for me and briefly walk me through it. If somebody brings a concern to the FAI, not about a child and not about a vulnerable adult, to do with a person who may be perpetrating some sort of danger, whether it be sexual or bullying, psychological or physical, will Ms Pakes please walk me through the procedure that she would have taken in 2023 to escalate that concern?