Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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1078. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he will review the status of experts under the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964, (Child's Views Expert) Regulations 2018, with a view to correcting the anomaly (details supplied) to include current practitioners, that is, psychotherapists, already working within the court services, to be included on the list of child's views experts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13251/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Guardianship of Infants Act 1964 (Child's Views Expert) Regulations 2018 (S.I. No. 587 of 2018) specify the necessary qualifications and experience of child’s views experts appointed under section 32(1)(b) of the Guardianship of Infants Act 1964 in private family law proceedings. The Regulations provide that the following may be appointed to perform the functions of child’s views expert: a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a social care worker, a social worker or a teacher. The Regulations specify that the designated professionals must be registered with a relevant regulatory body such as the Medical Council, the Teaching Council or the Health and Social Care Professionals Council (CORU). The Regulations provide that all designated professionals must have practised or provided a service specifically for children or adolescents and provided that service for a period of not less than 5 years within the 10 years immediately preceding their appointment.

Registration of health and social care professionals is a matter for CORU, the body charged with regulating the health and social care professions, under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005. Responsibility for this legislation and its associated agencies falls under the remit of the Department of Health.

In advance of the establishment by CORU of registers of psychologists and social care workers, the Child’s Views Experts Regulations specify that psychologists and social care workers must hold a qualification specified in the Health and Social Care Professional Act 2005.

Further consideration will be given to the question of amending the 2018 Regulations to include psychotherapists and counsellors when arrangements for the statutory registration of those professions under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 have been finalised by the Minister for Health and CORU.

On 16th November, Minister McEntee published the first Family Justice Strategy which sets out a vision for a family justice system of the future - a system that will focus on the needs and rights of children, assist their parents in making decisions that affect all of the family, one that makes it easier for vulnerable parents and families to get support and make informed decisions.

Among the actions in the Family Justice Strategy, under the Goal of Supporting Children, is an examination of the role of expert reports in the family law process, including the commissioning and availability of the reports; their content and use, and to make recommendations regarding their future application and function. Work has commenced and is being led by the Department of Justice, working closely with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.