Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

In all family law proceedings relating to the guardianship, custody and upbringing of a child, the court must always regard the child's welfare as the first and paramount consideration. Where appropriate and practicable, the court will also take into account the child's wishes in the matter having regard to his or her age and understanding. Similar statutory provisions apply in proceedings in respect of the care and protection of a child.

With regard to family assessments, section 47 of the Family Law Act 1995 provides that reports can be ordered by the courts dealing with questions affecting the welfare of any party to the proceedings. These reports deal mainly with child custody and access. In the past, they were provided by the probation and welfare service. However, because of the demands of the criminal courts, I understand the probation and welfare service has not been in a position to provide this service for some time.

Following a request from the Courts Service, the probation and welfare service agreed in 2003 to set up a pilot project for one year to provide these reports for the Dublin circuit family law courts. This initiative was of great assistance to judges but, owing to pressures from the probation and welfare service's core business in the criminal courts, the pilot was discontinued after one year. As a result, parties involved in family law disputes often engaged medical consultants, psychologists and others at considerable cost to provide evidence in court. Some judges dealing with family law expressed concern with the "over-medicalisation" of family law and the conflicting nature of the reports provided by these medical experts.

I am pleased to inform the Deputy that the Courts Service and the probation and welfare service reached agreement earlier this year that a system funded by the Courts Service would be established for the provision of reports to the family law courts and that the probation and welfare service would assist in the monitoring and quality control of this system.

Those providing this service will not be direct employees of the probation and welfare service but contracted on a fee per report basis. Reports will be provided by a panel of external contractors, in the main social workers and retired probation officers. The panel will have a national geographic spread and reports will be carried out by persons for a fixed fee per report. It is intended that this system will commence initially in the Dublin circuit family law courts. The probation and welfare service is appointing a senior manager to supervise and assure quality in this contract arrangement.

The Minister welcomes this initiative and is appreciative of the constructive work involved on the part of both agencies in developing this service. While he has no direct responsibility in the matter, the Minister will do whatever he can to support the initiative and looks forward to the service being fully established and working effectively to provide a service to families who find themselves in difficulty.

See this speech in context