Frances Black (Independent)
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I thank the witnesses for coming in today and for the great work they are all doing. My head is spinning a little, given what has been said. The presentations indicate the situation is a minefield. If in Ireland we cannot make our vulnerable children a number one priority, then I do not know what kind of country we are. There is no doubt it should be a number one priority. The image of the Bridewell and children going into that family law scenario is so traumatic. I cannot imagine what it must be like for the children.

There are a couple of areas I want to touch on, which Deputy O'Callaghan touched on a little in terms of prevention and how the witnesses see that. I will give an example to explain what I mean by that. I work in family therapy, specifically in the area of addiction. I wish to refer to addiction a little bit because I am sure it plays a significant role across the board in family law and court cases. A family I might work with could involve one parent in addiction and the other parent being so preoccupied, stressed, worried and anxious because of the chaos it brings into the home that the children can often be left neglected, as the parent who is not in addiction cannot function. As a result, the older child can be taking care of the younger children and they are looking after themselves. All of the chaos is going on and then there is a court case. I advocate that there should be some way of preventing all of that through the provision of resources for addiction services or by having the services working together. For example, Tusla could work with the addiction services to see if there was some way of preventing people from getting to the last stage of a court case to avoid children being obliged to go through all of that. What is the view of the witnesses in that regard?