Ms Nuala Egan:

I totally agree with the Cathaoirleach in respect of his concerns about representation of clients, such as parents in the childcare context. The parents we are meeting are very vulnerable and often have intergenerational issues or addiction issues. Often, they are not familiar with the complicated process into which they are thrown when Tusla, on foot of its concerns, initiates proceedings and seeks to bring their children into care or make them subject to its supervision. I note the Cathaoirleach's concern. I would say that we prioritise all applications for childcare support. The waiting lists, with which the Cathaoirleach may be familiar, do not apply in the context of childcare. Thus, any application that comes in from a client is prioritised. We do not charge any funds in relation to persons seeking representation in those cases. Under the Bridewell service, with which the Cathaoirleach may be familiar, a number of expert solicitors provide representation in respect of child public law between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. five days a week. An excellent, high-quality service is provided there. In recent years, we established a private practitioners' panel because demand was growing in this area. We needed to be able to access the supports of private practitioners in this area where our own dedicated team simply could not meet the demand. We set it out on a pilot basis in a few counties for a number of years. Last year, we put it on a permanent basis so that we can deal with this issue. We are very conscious of the need for a timely response to the provision of services for people in these situations. They are very vulnerable and they often come to us at the very last minute and so our approach is effectively to down tools and do our very best to get things ready for them.

The Cathaoirleach's second question was about the process of payment in the District Court.