Mr. Jim Gibson:

With regard to the historical allegations, we were asked when we would make an action from what we receive.

It is really important to stress that individuals come forward to Tusla and it is easy to say something about the past and sometimes it is difficult to ensure engagement with that individual to get the information that provides the opportunity to make a professional decision on how we manage that. If we are going take action and talk to any third part in respect of a historical allegation, we have a policy set down which Deputy Rabbitte referred to and which embodies good procedures to observe constitutional rights to fair procedure. It is very applicable to historical allegations and even our language today is a moving, sort of progressive way in which we should work. We should not use the words "alleged perpetrator" because then that sometimes becomes "alleged offender". When someone is subject to an allegation of historical abuse, that is the language we use and how we think, which ensures fair procedure for any individual who is referred by another about an abusive or an alleged abusive incident in the past. To be very clear, we write to the person who makes the allegation because sometimes these people present in a distraught state to our service.