Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I thank all our witnesses for their insightful presentations. I wholeheartedly agree with them that the system we have does not work. In some scenarios, it can adversely affect relationships with non-custodial parents if they are not paying maintenance. It costs so much and takes so much time to achieve a settlement. Parents get exhausted and run out of the money required to instigate a challenge against the parents who are not paying maintenance. It puts the parent who has ultimate responsibility in a very precarious position.

I have a question to which all of the delegates may respond. The court system can take months or years to go through and can involve an endless, futile journey for parents. Are there models abroad with timeframes that work? Can we talk about the solution these would provide by comparison with our system, which imposes a huge financial burden on parents pursuing a challenge? A new agency sounds like a great idea and plan, but what would be the cost to parents? What kind of timeframe would be involved in achieving this resolution? Can we look to models somewhere else that can give us some guidance?