Dr. Clíona Saidléar:

I wish to back up a lot of what Ms Coughlan has just said. What this comes down to is data because right now we do not know what the situation is. We have other pieces of data, for example, on the distribution of care in the raising of children. As 70% of the time it is mothers who are doing the caring, the question is how that impacts when one goes to court. We have income inequality between women and men as well, which also plays a part. Until we have data on what is happening in the courts, we cannot even have the conversation. This is another area where the Courts Service could begin to illuminate matters for us so that we could have a conversation based on evidence.