Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am a bit uneasy about this. My unease has not been in any way assuaged. I know the Minister is very persuasive.

I raise another issue which is not directly related to this one but which it affects professional individuals who may well have a degree in one area and feel that with a little bit of training, on-the-job practice and so on they will be suitable to deal with, for instance, children's rights in the courts because these cases end up in the courts. Some of them are there now. I have found there is a strong lobby of people who question the qualifications of the people who give expert evidence in the courts on matters very close to the subject we are discussing. Are the amendments we are discussing now likely to enable people who do not have appropriate qualifications, which are being questioned now, to practise as they wish to? A Supreme Court judge recently raised questions about expert witnesses and their appropriateness. It would almost appear that they were achieving celebrity status and that a number of such people covering that area in the courts were either tutors to or tutored by some of the other people who practise along with them and who are being questioned similarly.

I am still uneasy. In respect of the issues that I have referred to, I do not want somebody coming along in six months' time saying that we have resolved that problem now. That is what they see in it and I do not see a resolution coming that way. It may need to be resolved in a different way altogether with the appropriate training etc., for the person with the appropriate academic qualifications. In other words, going back to my original statement, there is not much sense in having a civil engineer, who could be a very important witness in a case in question, on the basis of on-site training. It is likely to create really serious controversy.

Last night, I had somebody on the telephone who pointed this out to me. This is a person I am well aware of, unfortunately, but they were not withdrawing from the scene. They were emphasising the point of appropriate academic qualification. In whatever sphere, there should be some correlation and we should not find ourselves having to create the situation to fill the need at this particular time. There is a habit of legislation in this country growing and extending itself by its own volition and need, as the case may be. It then becomes established and we find out a little further down the road, that it was not really appropriate and we should not have done it. That is the story of our lives unfortunately in this country.

I am particularly concerned about it in this social care area and the way the professions feel about it. As Deputy Shortall pointed out, this might solve the issue of filling the posts and so on, but if we fill the posts inappropriately, it is still not right.