Ms Saoirse Brady:

We think the State should foot the bill because it would circumvent parents having to decide whether to employ a child abuse expert. Some will not be able to afford it. We recommend a scheme akin to the legal aid scheme. A scheme was piloted, but the fees for child abuse experts were set very low. The regulations published in December came into force on 1 January. They were a long time in the making, given that the Act was passed in 2015. We did make submissions on the issue of fees, as did the national advisory council on children and young people. We engaged with Barnardos which operates the guardian ad litemscheme on how many hours it would take it to carry out this work. It told us that it would take about 30 hours because the person would have to establish a relationship of trust with the child and ensure he or she was not being coached by one or both parents. There is a responsibility on the State to provide resources to do this work. It is provided for in legislation and to enforce it, we need to ensure the regulations are fit for purpose.

On the issue of who can be appointed as an expert, the regulations set our four professions, one of which is a psychologist who comes under CORU, the body for health and social professionals. One of the issues arising is, if one has a complaint, to whom one can make it. That is not clear from the regulations. Some of our members have asked for the regulations on the professionals who can be appointed as a child abuse expert to be fleshed out further, lest we lose some really valuable expertise. Ultimately, the fees are far too low. That will not help to solve the problem and we need to find a way forward. The national executive office in the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, when established and up and running, could look at how this issue could be addressed.