Dr. Fergal Lynch:

This emerged over a lengthy period of time. The guardian ad litemservice was first put in place and provided for in the Child Care Act 1991 and gradually emerged from that point. No one would suggest for a moment that it is a satisfactory situation. As has been identified, it is very much demand-led, there is an insufficient control framework and no comprehensive oversight. This continued for a lengthy period of time, perhaps because it was part of a much wider budget, though that does not in any way justify it. For example, when it was under the Department of Health, there would have been a budget of billions upon billions of euro and this was a relatively small proportion of it. I do not suggest for a moment that is okay, but it would have been one of the reasons.