Mr. John O'Driscoll:

The extent of cyberstalking is difficult to estimate. Like many forms of crime, we only know of those reported to us. Part of what we are doing is trying to encourage more people to come forward and report crimes of that nature so we can get a full understanding of the extent that it is taking place. There have been successful investigations of such activity where, on their conclusion, there has been a prosecution and, in some cases, a conviction.

Clearly, much of the investigation involved in criminality of the nature described by the Senator is new to members of An Garda Síochána. Ensuring that our members are equipped and have full knowledge of all of the legislation available to them and, indeed, the existence of offences is a challenge for us. Delivering training has been a particular challenge for An Garda Síochána and for the Garda College in Templemore during the Covid-19 pandemic when the college closed. We are delivering training to our members throughout the country. The Garda National Protective Services Bureau is particularly involved in developing training in the area of some of the criminality involved here and some of the training is being adapted to be delivered online to members rather than in a classroom scenario.

We have started to recruit again recently and I am aware there was one class of recruits who joined us in May and who spent the first number of weeks being trained online before travelling to Templemore to receive some training in a classroom scenario.

Undoubtedly, it will take some time for all of our members to become fully au faitwith the full plethora of new legislation in this area but through the creation of the bureaus in recent years, namely, the Garda National Protective Services Bureau and the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau, in particular, we now have centres of excellence where, when members of An Garda Síochána throughout the divisions and the country come across criminality, the investigation aspect of which they are ensure, they can link into the national bureaus which will assist them in undertaking the investigations. Indeed, in the case of the Garda National Protective Services Bureau, we have more recently established units of this bureau in each division. These units are trained by personnel from within this bureau in the investigation of criminality, some of which falls under the headings that we mentioned. There is a unit of that nature in each division and training is being delivered in that area.

There is no doubt that these are complex investigations and can take some time to bring to a successful conclusion. Through the interaction with victims and with their assistance, we have the capacity to achieve convictions.

That is occurring on an ongoing basis.