Ms Mary Farrell:

We would like if the committee could speed up the decision support service and have that in place as quickly as possible so that the wards can transfer out of the Wards of Court system into the new service and ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Wards and families need to be supported in resolving this issue rather than our saying this happened and the Courts Service saying no it never happened. It has asked for evidence of funds being lost. The evidence we have are the accounts they sent us. It is there. The committee has copies of it. Does the Courts Service want us to send those back to it? Is that the evidence? I do not understand why it cannot see this. Is it wilfulness? I could not believe that intelligent people, which they are, cannot see this. I do not know whether it is denial or a blind spot but there definitely needs to be that first acknowledgement that there is an issue here before we can move on. Then there is the question of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s role, retrospective and in the future.

When the Wards of Court leave this system there will be substantial funds left on behalf of minors. While that is not our concern today I want to draw it to the committee's attention because that too will have to be monitored. The investments for minors will possibly be on a safer track than those for wards because it is a longer spread and there will not be the big sums coming in because there will be periodic payments. There will, however, be sums of money coming in that will need to be looked after and having the Comptroller and Auditor General on board is important across the board and retrospectively. It is not possible to undo the damage caused to us. We are dealing with judges on the investment committee and the President of the High Court is responsible for the wards. I do not know at what level we can go in on that except before a committee such as this. We feel the only solution is a judicial review because what else can we ask for at this point?