Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The proposal Deputy Brady made last year was fairly well received by everybody affected by this. It forms the basis of a good start. When I look at international best practice, the UK comes in fifth place. I am surprised by that given that its legal set-up is so similar to our own. We are looking at Canada, New Zealand, Sweden and Finland, all of whose agencies achieve very good outcomes. Not all of these agencies, however, are statutory maintenance agencies. I want to enact change in the fastest way possible. That might not mean a statutory agency; it might be something else. I am conducting the research. I tasked my officials to start looking at the issue quite recently. I will come back to the Deputy as soon as I have anything to work on.

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