Dr. Geoffrey Shannon:

The limit of that would be a sanction that would involve depriving somebody of their liberty. I think I can assist the committee by referring to what happened when the Child Maintenance Service was established in the UK in 2012. It runs into huge problems with enforcement. The best way to deal with this is alternative dispute resolution. The Government should try to have an elaborate system for engaging with parents at an early stage and create that in a more sophisticated manner than currently exists. There is huge potential in that. If we look at some of the other international models where that has occurred, it has occurred with a degree of success. That is the real potential. However, let us not pretend that there is a magic bullet; there is no magic bullet here. The Government needs to look at the powers it can grant to the agency and support the agency in terms of resources but also in terms of alternative dispute resolution and try to get as much agreement as it possibly can. That can be achieved. The family court Bill envisages this scheme as being the new order. Why not have that reflected in a maintenance context? That is what I would commend to the committee.