I wish to share time with Deputy Sheehan and Deputy Ahern.

Sentiment score: 0.60

First, I compliment Deputy Gogarty and his colleagues for bringing this forward. This is an extremely important topic. To a degree, we probably need to get to a political consensus on it. I believe that the Minister can travel this journey with us. He is probably committed to a certain amount of reform in this area. I read what he said last year and prior to that in relation to this. I hope his goodwill towards it is very real. I accept that it is a tricky area and it will take some time but I believe and hope that he will be the Minister to deal with this. Like others, I also compliment "RTÉ Investigates" on its programme. It certainly provided a level of knowledge to people and did it in a very real way. The review that reported in 2025 demonstrated what parents and guardians feel as regards being confused, isolated, silenced and completely confused as to what they can and cannot discuss. It is glaringly obvious that this has to be dealt with. We need clear information, clear knowledge and clear guidelines on how we deal with family court issues. I do believe the Minister is committed to it but few of the recommendations have been implemented. However, the report ultimately keeps the in camera rule, which creates a very confusing outcome. While we can agree with many of the recommendations, it still comes down in favour of that. This cannot continue in the real world. The world has changed from where we are in terms of the legislation that was brought in in relation to this, whereby information now comes out in a different way. We need to ensure that there is controlled transparency, with strong anonymity safeguards, rather than blanket secrecy. The impact on families and children has been huge. There has been emotional harm which has traumatised and retraumatised them. As legislators we finally need to deal with this in 2026. I have been saying this for some time. One of the most key points is that we need to deal with the issue of court-appointed experts. Without a shadow of a doubt, this is an area that needs a complete overhaul as regards minimum standards, minimum requirements and qualifications. In many cases judges just take the opinions of experts as factual and are guided by them. These people are being paid. It is an industry. The standards are not there. It is too defining a role to leave it in such a laissez-faire way. It is unacceptable. I urge the Minister to deal with this issue because it is life-changing for the families and children involved and it is completely inconsistent. There is also inconsistency in how Tusla implements recommendations. Ultimately, we need to change the in camera rule and permit the attendance of journalists. We need fully anonymity for families and we need judges to have discretion in respect of restrained reporting. We also need complete regulation of experts and training for members of An Garda Síochána.

Sentiment score: 0.13