Dr. Carol Coulter:

On the point made by Dr. Conor O'Mahony, the in camerarule correctly is in place to protect the privacy of people who are dealing with extremely sensitive and difficult matters. However, it has been interpreted, particularly by the Child and Family Agency, in an overly strict way in terms of access to information, particularly the kind of information from specialist research institutions such as universities. The Act introduced in 2007 specifically allowed a number of nominated bodies to attend family law courts and report on family law cases, subject to the anonymity provision. That did not extend outside the courts, for example, such that if any work needed to be done of a research nature involving children in care specifically, it was not covered by the legislation. There is certainly room to look at how bona fide researchers, subject to a set of protocols and controls to ensure there would be no invasion of the privacy of the families and children concerned, could have better access to families and children in order to inform us all on how practice might be improved.