Mr. Seán Ó hUallacháin:

It is about the reality of people's lives. I do not think anything different happens to middle-class people or other people. The court has the unenviable task of dealing with the facts of each particular case. As Dr. Fennell said, there is law in this but there also are the facts of each case, which, to a large extent determine certain practical outcomes. In a lot of cases, one parent, traditionally the father but that is changing, may well have workplace obligations which mean he cannot effectively take up equal parenting even if both parties want that. A lot of couples, be they in marital or non-marital relationships, if the conflict is minimised and the assets and maintenance issues are resolved do try to accommodate one another. A lot of it is the practical realities. There are difficult cases, which is a smaller subset where couples are in conflict and then, thankfully, a further smaller subset in respect of which section 47 or section 32 reports are needed. In a large number of cases people do come to an accommodation, but they have to take into account the realities of, say, commuting in Dublin if one lives in Chapelizod and works in Baldoyle. I do not think my colleagues would disagree with that.