Dr. Geoffrey Shannon:

I thank the committee for inviting the Law Society of Ireland to make a submission on this issue. There are a number of comparative models. I am suggesting to the committee, on behalf of the society, that the best way of approaching this is to embed a child maintenance agency within the existing structure in order that there be no legal vulnerabilities. We could have a child maintenance agency established under statute and with orders ultimately appealable to the District Court, which would mean a lot of routine applications could be dealt with by the agency.

In our submission, we looked at a number of models. There are two models to consider currently if a child maintenance agency is to be established, namely, the models from the UK and the Netherlands, both of which have such an agency in place. In terms of speed, we know from the experience in other jurisdictions that a child maintenance agency is very effective in dealing with applications on a consensual basis. The real problem is with enforcement. That is where we could look at investing in agency powers that do not trespass on the powers of the court. There is a delicate balance to be found to ensure there is no trespassing on what ultimately are the powers of the court. There has been some recent Supreme Court jurisprudence on what is and is not possible. It is the view of the Law Society of Ireland that a child maintenance agency will improve the efficiencies within the system and result in more timely decisions.

However, there are other issues that perhaps need to be addressed and the question of what role a child maintenance agency would play in that regard. We must remember that maintenance is a private law obligation. In regard to State supports, there is a need to ensure the agency works very closely with the Department of Social Protection. It is about establishing those relationships, establishing the powers of the agency and making sure those powers work alongside the powers available to the courts, with the majority of the decisions being taken by the agency, subject to an appeal to the District Court, which is ultimately where most of these decisions are taken. I hope that is helpful to the committee.