Mandatory reporting has become a well-known term, but it is often bandied about without anyone saying what they mean by it. The pros and cons are being debated by groups interested in child welfare. Among the advocates of mandatory reporting there is a fair level of agreement on what it entails.
All those who spoke to The Irish Times said an obligation to report suspected child abuse should be placed on professionals such as teachers and doctors. They would also place an obligation on people working in child care and people involved in sports and other activities with children.
But what about counsellors who fear that a child victim's therapy will be damaged or delayed if the counsellor makes a report which gets gardai and social workers involved?
The ISPCC, in its document on mandatory reporting, Another Brick in the Wall, says procedures can be devised which would enable therapists, social workers and gardai to work sensitively in such cases, but that therapists should report child abuse which they find out about in counselling.
Victims whose abuse has been reported are more likely to receive therapy and more likely to be willing to accept it, the council asserts.
What kinds of child abuse should professionals and others have to report?
Mandatory reporting is often portrayed in the media as if it referred only to sexual abuse. But advocates of the system see its application as far wider.
The kinds of abuse covered are physical, sexual and emotional, and neglect. Should a person have to know that abuse was going on, or would a suspicion be sufficient grounds for making a report to the health board or gardai?
"My feeling is suspicion is reasonable grounds," said Mr Owen Keenan of Barnardos. People should not have to go looking for evidence of abuse before making a report, he said.
Ms Olive Braiden of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre agreed. A strong suspicion should be sufficient grounds for a person such as a teacher to make a report.
She said it should be an "informed suspicion". Those on whom an obligation to make reports was placed should receive information and training on when and how they should act.
All those The Irish Times contacted said health boards and gardai should be entitled to exercise reasonable professional discretion as regards what reports to investigate formally. In other words, every suspicion reported would not result in social workers or gardai knocking on a family's door.
The ISPCC takes the view that "abuse and neglect definitions should be as broad as possible for reporting purposes, but much clearer and tighter for statutory professionals in making decisions about whether a formal investigation or intervention is necessary."
Mr Keenan draws a parallel with gardai who receive many reports of suspected criminal activity and use their professional judgment as to what weight to give the reports.
The working group appointed by the Minister of State for Children, Mr Frank Fahey, has already appointed Ms Maureen Lynnot of BUPA Ireland, a former director of Focus Point, as chairwoman.
Its work will clearly have major implications for children, and for those involved with them, well into the next century.