Ms Ursula Regan:

To follow up on the fees issue, the Constitution was amended so the voice of the child would be heard in court and the Child and Family Relationships Act 2015 provided for reports to be done for the court to facilitate a judge in circumstances where an application is brought before him or her for a barring order, for example. As night follows day, there would be an application for access. Looking at the volume of work in Dolphin House, there are between 12 and 15 cases listed per court per day. Trying to get a proper hearing if there are complicated matters and trying to get an understanding of dynamics in a household with domestic violence takes some time. It takes time to examine a fragile witness and get the full story of what is going on. There would also have to be a certain reading between the lines.

A scheme was set up to provide for reports to be done on children. An arbitrary age division was taken so now if children are over 12, by and large they are interviewed by judges; if they are over five or six but under 12, a report is compiled. That is certainly of assistance to the court.

However, at the time, a very low fee structure was put in place in a process not unlike the cuts we mentioned in legal aid. Only a handful of these experts compile reports for the court and, because of this, the delays in those reports run anything from six months upwards. One can just imagine the damage being done to a child or children during that period.

This brings us back to the problem that when legislation is introduced, it may seem good, strong and progressive on the face of it but if there is not the requisite support behind it or the system to enforce it, that legislation will come to naught in the end. We have very strong legislation in this area and the voice of the child is being heard. It looks great when we read it and it seems progressive and that it would tick every box. I hate using the expression but it looks like that until we drill down into the issue and realise that support systems are not there.