Child sex abuse cases taking 'several years' to get to court due to data-sharing delays

Tusla told the children's committee it was 'taking seven to eight years' to get child sexual abuse cases to court because of problems in sharing data between gardaí and Tusla, as well as delays over disclosure in the courts. Picture: Pexels

The Ombudsman for Children has hit out at continuing delays in data-sharing between gardaí and Tusla in relation to child victims of sex abuse, saying it was delaying cases getting to court by “several years”.

Responding to hearings at the children’s committee this week, Dr Niall Muldoon urged that any legal changes that need to be made to clear this roadblock “should happen straight away”.

Tusla told the committee it was “taking seven to eight years” to get child sexual abuse cases to court because of problems in sharing data between gardaí and Tusla, as well as delays over disclosure in the courts.

The committee heard this delay was happening at the country’s first dedicated centre bringing together medical, therapeutic, child protection and policing services under one roof.

Barnahus West in Galway aims to minimise the trauma for children and their families, improve the investigation process and increase the “very low” rate of prosecutions at 2%.

The committee also heard there were still problems establishing joint-interviews, comprising both gardaí and social workers.

It addition, members heard of protracted efforts to get funding to make Barnahus West fully operational and expand it to Cork and Dublin.

Dr Muldoon, said he was “really disappointed” there were still issues with data sharing, saying they were slowing down the progression of cases to court “sometimes by several years”.

He said: “Traumatised children should not have to be re-interviewed several times by different agencies because they are not working together properly, as they should.

“If tweaks are needed to the legislation around data sharing to ensure there is proper clarity on how this can be done within the legal framework, then this should happen straight away.” 

He added: “I have also long called for this multiagency approach to be rolled out nationwide and hope that funding will be prioritised for Barnahus South and the extension of Barnahus West in the short term.” 

Cari, a voluntary specialist service, said it was running a pilot with Barnahus West and offering early therapeutic interventions with children “to help reduce trauma”.

Chief executive Emer O’Neill added: “In Cari, we see the benefit of having all the services under one roof. We agree that sharing of information is essential among these organisations to support children, and it needs to be a priority.” 

Last April, the Policing Authority said the conclusion of a data-sharing agreement between Tusla and the gardaí had “to date been a seemingly intractable issue” and had a “significant impact” on joint working.

The Department of Children said a working group had been set up, including Gardaí, Tusla and other key agencies and experts, to try and resolve the data sharing problem.

"This working group is currently ongoing and aims to address the needs of data sharing between the agencies involved in Barnahus," the department said.