Ms Saoirse Brady:

To add to that, the new Child Care (Amendment) Bill, the most recent version of which we should see quite soon, makes provision for a child to have both a guardian ad litemand a solicitor if he or she is party to the proceedings, which is welcome. As Dr. O'Mahony said, under section 25 a child can be joined as a party to the proceedings but that has not really happened. That is something that we would call for because if we really want to ensure that a child is participating in proceedings, we have to assess whether he or she should be party to the proceedings. There has been a paternalistic view of this, which holds that we should protect a child by not letting him or her be a party but the child should be involved. Ultimately, the decision is about the child so that is something that must be addressed. The guardian ad litemBill is in preparation and that is one area that could be looked at again.

Child abuse experts really need to have the space and time to represent the views of the child. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides guidance in Article 12 on the views of the child. The representative is there to say what the child thinks and not to interpret what the child thinks. A guardian ad litemwill talk about the best interests of the child but he or she is meant to actually relate the child's view and not to sugar-coat it for the court.