Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I too am happy to speak on this Bill. Like my party colleagues, I am happy to support it in general terms. Guardians ad litemhave at times been a source of public interest and contention when the eye-watering fees paid to a number of them were published. For example, during 2018 guardians ad litemwere paid €8.44 million in fees by Tusla. The legal fees they incurred amounted to a further €6.21 million that year. The guts of €15 million is a lot of money by any standards. In 2017 the Committee on Public Accounts heard the average GAL income was €126,000 the previous year, with one GAL being paid almost €250,000, which the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, correctly declared to be more than the President of Ireland. The average GAL income of €126,000 was based on 1,000 hours work, which was said to be two and a half times what similar practitioners in England, Scotland and Wales were getting. I am glad to see the Minster is willing to address that here. Then came the necessary reform of the law governing guardians ad litemin the Bill that fell with the dissolution of the previous Dáil.

The current Bill sets out to reform the existing ad hocGAL arrangements for children who are the subject of court proceedings. A key aim of the Bill is to ensure the GAL informs the court of the views of the child where that child is deemed both capable and willing to express his or her views. It also allows the GAL to make recommendations to the court on what is in the best interest of the child, after considering the child’s view. It also sets out to provide for mandatory GALs in all special care proceedings.

On the best-interest-of-the-child principle, I wish to broaden my remarks because this principle has become a kind of holy of holies that some people believe applies to all matters involving children in this State and of course, to our great discredit, it does not. It must and it should. In fact, in the broader State responsibilities, it is simply a mantra that allows for all the feels and statements about upholding the rights of children. It is as if we are saying look at us and how great we are, but it is nothing more than optics. This nonsense is why we have 732 children in special education without a designated school place last year and why we have children's spines turning into S bends while they await spinal surgery. It is why we have children living in log cabins, on their granny’s sofa, in a prefab or in the recent case of a child in my constituency, a caravan. The child was afraid the caravan would blow away in one of the recent storms. The Minister might therefore forgive me for noting much talk of the lauded and much-promoted best-interest-of-the-child principle is galling for those people who I hear and listen to every day.

The voice of the child is indeed critical and it must be heard. In the context of the family law courts I am aware of a number of section 47 cases where the children told me their voices were not heard at all. I welcome any move that strengthens this provision for our children involving the family courts. While we welcome the Bill, we will be proposing a number of amendments on Committee Stage because it needs further strengthening. For example, we want to ensure the role of the GAL is fully recognised in the eyes of the court and to ensure there will no watering down of GAL access to Tusla files. We cannot hide behind GDPR on that. GALs must have the information they need to give children the best voice, opportunity and protection to which they are entitled.

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