Gardaí say there is a major problem in Ireland with people accessing child abuse images online.
The Assistant Commissioner in charge of Special Crime Operations has told the Policing Authority that hundreds of additional cases will be taken on this year alone and the material found will be examined more quickly.
John O'Driscoll also said that in one case under Operation Ketch, over 100,000 images were found on one individual's device, and that each one of them has to be analysed.
He also said that no child victim has so far been identified in Ireland as part of that special investigation into online child abuse here, but that the gardaí also have responsibilities to children abroad and they are working along with international police services.
The Head of the Garda's Protective Services Unit said they have established a victims unit which has substantially increased their identification of victims.
Detective Superintendent Declan Daly accepted there was a backlog between the seizure and the analysis of devices, but he said there was a "triage" system in place and if the gardaí have information that a child may be at risk, then those cases are prioritised and examined immediately.
He also said there was an issue with children placing explicit images online and the gardaí are working with TUSLA in a co-ordinated approach to deal with this.
The gardaí he said are also removing untrained officers from child abuse investigations by referring these cases to local child protection units and in more serious cases appointing a senior investigating officer locally or referring to the National Specialist Units.
In cases of rape the appointment of a senior investigating officer is mandatory.
The Assistant Commissioner also told the Policing Authority that people with previous specialist skills such as teachers have joined the gardaí and they are now being assigned to child protection.
The Acting Garda Commissioner, who is abroad but attended the meeting by videolink, also said there will be consequences and sanctions for senior officers at management level who do not deal properly with cases of child abuse.
PA Chair says prosecutions avoided as notifications not dealt with
The Chair of the Policing Authority has said juvenile offenders have avoided prosecution because notifications were not dealt with.
The Assistant Commissioner in charge of policing in Dublin accepted that some gardaí had not done their jobs but he said those culpable would be disciplined.
A review was under way which he said "was not pretty but there were no free passes."
The Authority was also unimpressed by the response by gardaí to the critical report on policing the Jobstown incident, which found intelligence failures, the church grounds had not been secured, there was no cordon around the then Tánaiste's jeep, and the public order unit was poorly deployed.
Deputy Commissioner John Twomey insisted that the gardaí have learned the lessons of that day and have fundamentally changed the way they deal with such incidents in the future.
