Dr. Clíona Saidléar:

As the Deputy stated, people in his constituency are making assumptions about or trying to understand what happens in the family law courts, but no one is able to see into them. In the absence of data and research, one gets myths, some of which are very mistaken. However, we cannot show that until we have data. We very much endorse Dr. O'Mahony's proposal regarding the capacity to carry out qualitative research and speak to the service users, namely, parents and children, to ask them their experience. Quantitative data are also critically important because in its absence there are myths that we cannot prove right or wrong. Much time and energy is spent trying to understand whether what is happening in the courts is right but we simply do not have the data to make that judgment.