Retired Supreme Court judge Catherine McGuinness has said it is "extraordinary" that expert independent reports from people such as psychiatrists and social workers are not easily accessible in family law cases.
Chairing the Law Society's family law conference in Dublin yesterday, Ms McGuinness said that Australian courts had access to a wide range of supports, such as mediation and advice from experts. "It does seem extraordinary that we are unwilling to provide even the most minimal amount of expertise for the family law courts in this country," she said.
She was responding to comments by family law solicitor Audrey Byrne, who said there was a provision to ask a child psychiatrist or psychologist to carry out a section 47 report to assess what was in the best interests of the child in a family law case.
However, this process could be expensive and time-consuming, Ms Byrne said, and "untold damage" could be done to children while waiting for the report.
Ms McGuinness said that the cost of such reports was beyond the reach of many families who were not wealthy but did not qualify for free legal aid. She said the family law court development committee of the Courts Service had been concerned about this issue and had tried to set up a pilot project to get reports through the probation and welfare services. However, this did not happen because of the workload of staff.
"There is a need for more alternatives, such as dispute-resolution, especially where children are involved," Ms McGuinness said.
Colm Roberts, of the Legal Aid Board, said that the probation and welfare services had provided such reports in the early 1990s after interviewing all concerned parties. The withdrawal of this service was a "particular loss" to the courts, he said.
Mr Roberts said that judges were now required to make "difficult decisions without the assistance of expert professionals".
