Mr. Cormac Quinlan:

We now have a dedicated manager at senior level in the organisation working specifically with the Garda on a programme of work. They sit under my direction and that programme of work is examining the finalisation of an information-sharing agreement, which is in the final stages at present as it is going through legal review. The Garda also has asked the Data Protection Commission to review it as well to ensure it is compliant with current general data protection regulation requirements. We are just about to sign off on a joint protocol with the Garda relating to specialist interviewing in order that there is clarity on how and when social workers are to be brought into those interviews. There are approximately 14 social workers who are currently active and trained doing interviews and we expect to have ten more trained this year. As Mr. McBride indicated, we are reliant on the Garda to provide us with that training programme but we are actively looking at it and progressing it all the time. The Minister has been very supportive of the work on giving consideration to joint teams. We must think about how that might work practically but we are absolutely committed to ensuring we are doing joint interviews and not re-interviewing children unnecessarily.