Dr. Clíona Saidléar:

I echo what Ms Benson said. Women's Aid and the Rape Crisis Network Ireland work together with a number of NGOs and we are particularly concerned about how family law courts, in particular private family law courts, intersect with domestic and sexual violence. We are concerned based on what is coming to us with regard to sexual violence but is anecdotal and this is a problem. Committee members have spoken about the issues that come to their clinics. We have a set of anecdotes available to us but we do not have full insight. We do not have good data or evidence coming out of them. This is the first step in how we begin to come up with solutions and answer the questions that have been asked about the specifics we need to put in place. One of the specifics is that we need transparency. Private family law courts are essentially a black box through the in camerarule. There is no reason we cannot have data coming out of such cases, even while we protect the identities and safety of the people involved in the cases, which are incredibly painful. The first issue is that we need more data and evidence. This is something that can be looked at.

In terms of the particulars, something that has been raised is how coercive control plays out. The name of the coalition of NGOs is the Children Living with Domestic and Sexual Violence group. We are looking at issues such as dual consent for a child's access to therapy or services that professionals have indicated would be of benefit to the child, and how this access is blocked in ways that are used in coercive control. This is, of course, incredibly complex because there is a set of assumptions around it.

With regard to solutions, the first step is that we need the evidence. We need more data and evidence. We need to know the patterns because what we have are anecdotes. The charities and NGOs that work with children and families can add in our various lines of sight to begin to understand what is happening between the three systems. There are essentially three systems that are, in part, blind to one another. There is the criminal justice system, the public and private civil law systems and the child protection response. Particularly with regard to sexual violence and disclosures of sexual violence against children, we are very concerned about what happens when an allegation of child sexual abuse in or around the family disappears into private family law and, indeed, how coercive control begins to happen around the particular allegation. These are all very serious issues in terms of gender equality. I do not think we can understand how our system operates gender inequality and discrimination unless we have insight into what is happening in our family law courts.