Dr. Geoffrey Shannon:

The Deputy raised a very important point. If we look at the system at present, the section 47 report relates to section 47 of the Family Law Act 1995. We have an unregulated system in private family law cases. These are cases that involve divorce and judicial separation, which are high stakes cases, where, in fact, an entire marriage is being reordered, including the assets of the marriage. In stand-alone applications, which are governed by section 32 of the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015, we have a regulated system with a child view expert. We have failed to regulate, and we heard Ms Kiernan outline the consequences of that, the procurement of these reports in private family law cases. There is a failure to provide sufficient regulations.

Certainly, the Law Society's family law committee has been calling for some time for robust regulation because the reports provided to the Family Law Circuit Court are reports that will ultimately decide who is granted custody or access. An issue that needs to be dealt with as a matter of priority is that while we have regulation for discrete custody and access applications, we do not have it where it is dealt with as part of a private family law matter. The time is now to ensure that those regulations are introduced and that citizens are protected. The absence of regulation could ultimately have very devastating consequences unless we move immediately to fill that lacuna.