Investigating historic child sexual abuse in schools is likely to increase pressure on specialist Garda units, the Policing Authority has warned.
In a letter sent to the Minister for Justice last March, the authority’s chair, Dr Elaine Byrne, wrote that a scoping inquiry into historical sexual abuse in schools run by religious orders has already been a “major pull” on the resources of the Garda National Protective Services Bureau. This pull, she said, “seems likely to increase as investigations proceed”.
Writing before the establishment of a commission of inquiry into the matter, approved by the Government in July, the Policing Authority told Jim O’Callaghan that this too could “potentially increase the resource impact on the Garda Síochána regarding retrospective cases”.
The Garda was praised for its work on historical sexual abuse cases in the letter. “It is imperative that these victims, no less than victims who are still children, receive a sensitive response from expert officers in a timely manner.”
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Ms Byrne also warned that staffing levels among specialist gardaí investigating online child exploitation are “critically low”, with staffing issues at the online child exploitation unit (OnCE) hampering its ability to process child abuse referrals from the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
“The effect of these is visible in decreases in child pornography offences, due to the impact on the ability of the OnCE to process child abuse referrals from the US-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, and refer them for investigation.”
The authority, which was earlier this year subsumed into the new Policing and Community Safety Authority (PCSA), had been asked to monitor Garda actions in implementing recommendations from a Garda Inspectorate report on responding to child sexual abuse.
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Sinn Féin justice spokesman Matt Carthy said the letter raised “a number of serious concerns” and that he was “particularly concerned” about the staffing issues in the online unit. He said it was “not surprising” that staff shortages were affecting specialist units given ongoing recruitment and retention issues in the force.
The authority also told Mr O’Callaghan about a “worrying” hold-up in implementation of a 2023 data-sharing agreement between the Garda and Tusla, the child and family agency, due to “bottlenecks”. Ms Byrne told the Fianna Fáil TD: “Disappointingly ... the agreement remains to be implemented.” She said data-sharing practices were “crucial” to ensuring child sexual abuse investigations are timely and effective.
It also flagged areas of positive progress, including improvements in the governance of child-protection notifications exchanged with Tusla; the training of joint specialist interviewers; and the increasingly collaborative working on child protection.
It said it was pleased additional technology has been made available, which reduces the number of images members of the child sexual exploitation investigation team have to view as part of their work.
The Department of Justice referred queries on data sharing and resourcing to the Garda, which did not respond to questions before publication.
A spokesman for the PCSA said it was told in March that the data-sharing agreement with Tusla was “imminent”.
