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

I would be happy with that. The last word comes in the operation, afterwards. I know of mothers who have had their children taken away from their custody and put elsewhere on the expert advice of a so-called qualified professional. It impinges on this area. It is about childcare and social care. On the basis of the evidence, these things have happened and continue to happen. The courts present someone as an expert witness but the women come back and say the person is not an expert witness as they have no qualification in that particular area at all. They are establishing it as time goes by and have become experts in the area, to the extent that a Supreme Court judge commented that they were taking over the job of the courts and there was no need for the courts at all. It was just a matter of referring to the expert witness who is now a celebrity. It is crazy stuff.