Mr. Ronan Cavanagh:

Briefly, if I could return to a point made by Deputy Ellis and to reinforce what he was saying, we do a lot of polling on experiences and pre-Covid, online abuse was the fifth most common type but it was the third most common type after Covid, which I think is no surprise. People think of sexual abuse but psychological, online and emotional abuse are more common.

Part of the brief of Safeguarding Ireland is to raise public awareness around the very issue the Senator raised around reporting. We found that about a quarter of people are not sure where to go or who to report to if they have a safeguarding concern. We undertake an annual campaign called Adult Safeguarding Day. In 2022, we had a very clear message that if there is an immediate or serious concern, people should report that to the Garda, and there is nowhere else they should go with a serious concern than to the Garda if somebody is at immediate risk of harm. If there is an ongoing complex issue, people should report that to the HSE safeguarding teams. We try to continuously build greater awareness among the public via social media, general media and local radio interviews. Granted, there is still an ongoing need for further understanding of how and where to report adult abuse.