Mr. Declan Daly:

We in the Garda national protective services bureau work very closely with Tusla. I would go as far as to say that never in the history of the State have we been so well partnered. We are discussing co-location. We already have within our unit a dedicated resource from Tusla. Again, that is really positive. Any advancement in that area is great. I cannot say that I have had experience of cases such as the Chairman has just outlined. In terms of the services which Tusla provides, however, we work closely with it and it provides its services. If it decides that it will not supply services, that is a matter for it. There are difficulties there but we have huge interaction with Tusla on cases.

The Children First guidelines talk about the level of interaction. In the new Children First guidelines for 2017, we have actually introduced additional engagements from the ground level, where the garda and the social worker engage, to where an inspector or sergeant engages with a team leader, right up to where a superintendent engages with a principal social worker. In addition there is the more strategic element, which includes my role with the national management for Children First and the assistant commissioner's role as co-chair of the strategic liaison committee. We have built a very robust engagement pathway with Tusla, which is very important. In respect of those cases which occur in the middle of the night when our unit might not be working, it is not just about offences online. There are cases of contact offences. That happens. It happens in cases of domestic violence and in other areas. That is what our front-line troops and first responders are there for. They are there to hold that line and then pass the case to specialist units.