Barry Ward (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that commitment. I will engage with the Minister. I do not know if this is something that is applied in a way that is intransigent by different State agencies. I do not know the answer to that. I also do not know if it is the case, for example, that a parent now in the situation where a child needs a particular assessment goes to the District Court can make that application in circumstances where he or she could not serve notice on the other parent of the application being made because there is no contact whatever. We know there are families where one parent is estranged. This specifically, and much more commonly, affects women who are left looking after a child in the absence of the father rather than the other way around.

I appreciate the Minister’s commitment. I will engage with him and hopefully we can come to a solution to make this work better.

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