Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)

I understand that. I am just referring to the leadership that could be provided by the Department, because this issue does cut across a number of Departments. Mr. Hession will know himself that sometimes when everybody is responsible, nobody is responsible. It is just about bringing them together and ensuring there is consistency. This is important, particularly when this is being used to measure. Obviously, a target is set there. The situation at present just makes it harder to know in terms of time, and things like that. I will just make that point and thank Mr. Hession for his response.

I turn to an issue on which I do not have a settled view but one that has been raised with me a few times. I am talking about situations where parents are co-parenting. I mean actually co-parenting. I am not talking about taking kids to a fast-food restaurant for a couple of hours but about splitting everything and splitting the costs. I am aware of the research saying that sometimes when this is done it does not necessarily benefit the children to the same extent from both parents. I understand that, which is why I am saying I have no settled view on the matter. Has the Department has done any work on how it could be done or what it would take to be able to do it? I say this because there are genuine court-ordered co-parent arrangements where it is split. It is a happy situation if people get on and they split the money, but we know that they very often do not. The costs, though, are still often split very evenly.