Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy outlined, that work is happening in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman and his team are currently undertaking an audit, which is due to be completed early in the new year. It is about much more than just bed spaces; it is about ensuring the appropriate services are there and that people in State agencies are working together with the community and voluntary sector.

Unfortunately, the figures are not specific to Cork, as we have seen an increase everywhere. The increase for 2020 compared to 2019 is 14%. If we break down the figures for Cork north, there was a 15% increase in incidents, Cork city had the largest number of incidents and Cork west saw a 20% increase in incidents. It is very clear that this has become even more of a problem than it already was. As Deputy O'Sullivan outlined, significant work has been done by An Garda Síochána's Operation Faoiseamh. There have been 217 prosecutions specifically in this area, 20,699 contacts or attempts to contact victims and 110 prosecutions have commenced, so a significant amount of work is under way by An Garda Síochána in Cork to try to deal with this problem.

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