Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 19 January 2017

Public Accounts Committee

Report of the Accounts of the Public Services 2015
Chapter 11 - Guardian Ad Litem Service

9:00 am

Dr. Fergal Lynch:

The critical thing will be that under the new system, number one, the Minister will make regulations in relation to fees for both legal and guardians ad litemand, number two, by putting the national service provider in place and allowing the national service provider to have in-house legal expertise, that should greatly reduce the need to spend money on this area. What we would hope to do is rebalance entirely the mix between guardian ad litemfees and expenditure and legal. At the moment, it seems extraordinary that they are not far off 50:50, which is just not acceptable.