Mr. Ronan Cavanagh:

Could I add a small bit of data to the Deputy's question?

In 2019, Safeguarding Ireland carried out a poll of a representative sample of adults asking them about their experience, or an experience they had witnessed, of adult abuse. Some 10% of adults said that they had either experienced or witnessed adult abuse. This adds up to approximately 400,000 cases. The most recent HSE annual report from its safeguarding office has in excess of approximately 13,000 reported cases of suspected adult abuse. This shows the gap between what is reported to the HSE services and what the reality may be. This raises the point that there is a need for broken-down figures from An Garda Síochána and that is something that we do not currently have. A national safeguarding authority would be the place in which all the different contexts and suspected cases of adult abuse could be co-ordinated. There would be a truer figure through a national co-ordinated structure.