Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation. The organisation does fantastic work. I know the difficulties families go through in these situations. In my previous life I was a lawyer and I did a lot of family law work. I have seen at first hand what children go through when they go through the courts system. Very often, unfortunately, parents tend to forget the impact their conflict, separation and subsequent divorce has on a child. Once a child hits the age of two he or she has some understanding that there is a conflict. He or she will soak it up and there is an impact, which is very lasting.

I will not mention names but we have a particular judge on the circuit who is very good at pointing out to parents the most important people in the situation are always the children. She is very clear in asking parents to think long and hard about the impact their conflict is having on their children, and is very clear at making the point that the impact would be lasting if they did not get their act together, for want of a better phrase. We need a little bit more of this during the separation process to educate parents that the children will take this with them and carry it forward for many years if they do not behave in an appropriate manner. Looking in from the outside, it is very easy to be logical and leave emotions at the door, but it is a very emotional process, and almost a grieving process, that people go through. They grieve for their relationship. I am interested in hearing the thoughts of the witnesses on the four years required to separate. Is it too long? In my view it is far too long. When people take the decision to separate and subsequently seek a divorce, they can probably make the decision in a very well informed manner in a much shorter time period. We have one of the longest periods in the modern world to process a divorce. It is damaging to children involved in the situation.

What are the witnesses thoughts on how we facilitate children going through the courts process and the voice of the child? We have improved a little in terms of being able to ask children what they want. Previously we waited until they were quite a bit older, and perhaps we did not have an appreciation of the age at which a child has the capacity to have input into separation and divorce.

The approach to Christmas is one of the most difficult periods for a family. I have been in a court setting where parents argued over how many hours on Christmas Day each would get with the children, when they would pick them up on Christmas Eve and what night the children would stay with the mother and father. The children are aware of this. It is a difficult situation. Often this argument is borne out in a court setting, which seems so inappropriate. One would think if we could get both parties to sit down at a table in a mediation setting to try to work it out we would have a much better outcome. How can we improve on this? How can we keep it out of the courts? What services do we need to see in place?

The reasons I saw parents continuously returning to court were access and maintenance. I worked with people, predominantly women, who were having huge difficulties in getting the maintenance already ordered by the courts and had to return to court on a regular basis to try to enforce the order and get the money due to the children for their welfare and to look after them. No mechanism seems to be in place to enforce maintenance orders. The only port of call is to return to the courts. This clearly creates increased animosity between the two partners and continues the conflict well into the future. If a better mechanism was in place which did not require an individual to continuously return to court to enforce a court order it would have a real impact on limiting the amount of interaction between parents and the court system, which would be beneficial to the children.