Ms Louise Bayliss:

That is a relevant point. We have not discussed the fact that the non-enforcement of court orders facilitates post-separation abuse. In a case of domestic abuse, the only area remaining where someone can exercise coercive control is around access and maintenance. That is used post separation. The courts are really at the mercy of people's behaviour because they assume compliance and if there is none, it is up to the other person to repeatedly go back to the court. What the Chairman said about adjournment is true to a point. It is even more dangerous than that, in one sense. As was mentioned earlier, if a person does not turn up for a court appointment, which often happens, the judge will sometimes lose patience, allow no more adjournments and issue a bench warrant. There is no prosecuting garda in family law cases. The bench warrant goes out to the local Garda station and sits in a tray waiting to be executed and because there is no prosecuting garda, it is unlikely to be executed unless a parent can go directly to a superintendent and get it enforced. All proceedings are halted. The court's arms are tied until that bench warrant is executed. That is an horrendous and ongoing situation. Our research revealed that 36% of parents are owed a significant amount of arrears and have stopped seeking it either voluntarily, because of the ongoing and draining nature of the process to which the Chairman referred, or because a bench warrant is sitting in a Garda station waiting to be executed. That ends the situation.