I am mindful, however, that there is a need to examine proceedings under the 1991 Child Care Act to ascertain how cases are decided in normal circumstances. These cases are heard in the District Court where judgments are rarely written and there is no facility for recording such judgments. The third report of the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children makes such a recommendation. A valuable piece of research was carried out by Dr. Carol Coulter in respect of family law reporting and was published in October 2007 by the Courts Service. I would very much support a similar approach to child care proceedings and will examine opportunities to undertake such research. Legislation already exists that enables the publication of anonymised information in respect of children. Section 3 of the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2007 amends section 29 of the Child Care Act 1991. Section 3 (7) states:

See this item in context