Mr. Declan Daly:

Deputy Mitchell mentioned the issue of the evidence having gone. Anyone who has been a victim of any kind of exploitative activity, even if they believe that the image may be gone, should report it. Mr. Gubbins is more of a specialist in this than me, but in every computer device a digital fingerprint is left. That is not to say we can find it in every case but the important thing is to report the incident. Anyone who thinks that the evidence is gone from their phone, that they or their parents may have deleted it, should still report it.

On training, as the assistant commissioner, Mr. O'Driscoll said, ours is a very specialised area. It is difficult to have every garda trained in something so specialised. That is one of the reasons why we have the divisional protective services units, so that in every division there are people who are specialists in the area, and in the future there will be local specialists there. Currently, the biggest role in our office is advising members. To use Deputy Mitchell's scenario, if one calls to a local garda station, the garda on duty might say that it is not his area but then he will ring us and we will give him the information or we might take over the investigation or have oversight of it depending on its seriousness. The important thing is for people to report. The Europol Say No campaign is very clear, not only on this but on all sexual crime, and that is what we encourage.