Ms Sarah Benson:

On parental consent, the RCNI can deal with that subject on behalf of several agencies that have concerns in this area. Turning to court orders, regarding safety and protective orders, serious concern is emerging around the lag in this regard and the lack of a clear, defined structure and relationship between the courts and the Garda in respect of serving such orders. A legal precedent is now emerging, which was not there before, where breaches of orders are being challenged if those orders were not served by a Garda. The Garda, however, has no obligation to serve those orders. An action is set out in the strategy to try to resolve this problem. It is urgent and must be attended to.

Concerning other orders, other procedural considerations are under way.

One I would particularly highlight is consideration of the maintenance system. Women's Aid, along with many of our colleagues in the family and child organisations, strongly endorses the establishment of a separate maintenance structure that lifts responsibility out of the courts, makes it less adversarial and takes away from the victim responsibility to pursue maintenance or, where there are breaches of maintenance orders, the obligation to keep going back to court. This has very real-life consequences for applications for means-tested social welfare benefits. I highlight this as something at an advanced stage of review. It would also reduce the number of guardianship cases that often go to court in response to a maintenance application.