Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I welcome some of those points he made, particularly around some of the new working groups. I assume they were established recently enough. Maybe they were established even after this report was published. Obviously, however, it is very concerning and worrying for us.

Some particularly worrying things that stuck out to me were that in some instances, front-line workers were uncertain about reporting their suspicions and felt uncomfortable discussing sexual exploitation or did not know what to do. It is nearly impossible to believe that was the case, but we have to absolutely ensure that whatever safeguards, training and expertise are needed in this area are put in place. One of the things that was recommended was to look at specialist knowledge that exists in England following inquiries into the sexual exploitation of children in Rochdale. One of the recommendations in the report was that we would look at that here and see whether some of that can be mirrored. However, I would like to know-----

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