Mr. Gerard Brophy:

We have worked really hard. It builds on the work of Children First and the reporting mechanisms which we have for mandatory reporting. Reports are made, either to An Garda Síochána or to ourselves, and we communicate with each other. If there is a forensic medical, it is reported to us and we report it to An Garda Síochána as well, and likewise with any other voluntary organisation or anyone else. Those reports are coming in really early. We are able to get them in early and Tusla is triaging those. As they are coming to Tusla, at the same time, they are coming to Barnahus. They might come to medical forensics or to An Garda Síochána over the weekend. They will also be dealt with in Barnahus, knowing that a mandated report has already been made.

The Senator referred earlier to the low numbers we have. While we have a large number of reports, which are classified as sexual abuse, often that is a concern that comes in from the referrer and they are classifying it as sexual abuse as they come in. We may, over a period of time, see that it is actually not sexual abuse. It may be neglect, emotional abuse or maybe physical abuse. That can be dealt with and triaged at an early stage.

We know that one of the challenges in every system in Europe, particularly in Ireland, is very low numbers coming through to criminal prosecution. Even at the end of that, we probably have only 2% coming through to criminal prosecution and a very low number of those are actually successfully prosecuted.

That is because the perpetrator may be innocent or otherwise. That is our justice system. We are trying to identify how we can raise that number, and that was referred to earlier. A primary motivating factor behind Barnahus is how we give children access to the justice system so that those crimes can be vindicated and followed through.