Government must tackle loophole to deliver justice in our family courts

WE KNOW that the State goes to great lengths to ensure that complex matters of family law are dealt with in as sensitive, efficient and effective a way as is possible in the court system.

There are, however, many issues outstanding, which perhaps is to be expected given the stakes when mothers and fathers are in dispute over their children.

Because of this, the drafting and application of legislation in this area needs to be beyond any reproach, particularly as it is the one area of the court system that does not allow for full scrutiny by the press.

Often, injustices occur through no fault of the court system, but because of bad actors in such cases, with desperate parents justifying fanciful or false allegations in the face of potentially losing access their children.

One such issue is governed by Section 47 reports concerning the welfare of the children, which can be requested by judges in the family courts, and which can be written by anyone, with or without qualifications.

This newspaper has uncovered several cases in which women lost custody of their children after they were accused of engaging in what is known as family alienation, despite the fact that some of the men involved were abusers who had engaged in domestic violence against spouse and children alike.

Women who were granted supervised access found themselves having to pay a private company up to €200 a week to facilitate these visits, a huge burden when separation or divorce usually leave significant financial strain.

TD Bernard Durkan has repeatedly raised the innate unfairness of this issue in the Dáil, to no avail.

The need for his dogged pursuit of the topic can be seen in stark relief in the form of Mr James Sheehan, who Mr Durkan has named as a person who is touting the discredited ‘family alienation’ theory for €8,000 a time. Mr Sheehan’s questionable approach can often greatly inform a court’s final decision on such important matters.

The fact that he is not breaking the law means that the law is not fit for purpose, because it descends into a downward spiral of ‘he said, she said’ claim and counter-claims that often are not rooted in reality.

The fact that he is able to continue to exploit this situation to his benefit is simply not right in this day and age. Best practice internationally can and should be able to be assimilated quickly by our courts and factored in to the often harrowing but nearly always necessary decisions in the best interests of children.

The Government must take heed of Deputy Durkan and reform this loophole in order to deliver justice, not a verdict on a reality TV show.

A CORRECTION FOR OUR READERS

Last week, this newspaper informed our readers that up to half of gardaí would be eligible for retirement by 2028.

This was because we, and our source, TD and senior counsel Jim O’Callaghan, were misled by a very sloppy response to a parliamentary question, one that did not make clear which figures were annual and which were cumulative.

The Department of Justice asked for a correction, which you can read on page 32 – because even though they don’t deserve one, our readers, do.