Voices of very young children ‘muted’ within Irish family law proceedings

14 Dec 2022

The voices of very young children are effectively missing from Irish family law proceedings, according to a new report published this week.

This research, was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers, Dr Aisling Parkes (UCC), Dr Simone McCaughren (PI, TCD) and Dr Stephanie Holt (TCD) and is the first of its kind to shed light on how contact arrangements are made for very young children and infants aged under six years.

There were two key aspects to this study – the first was to gain a snapshot of how, and in what ways, contact arrangements for separated and divorced parents and their shared children (aged 0-6) are established in the Irish context.  The lived experiences of those who have practical experience of making shared parenting arrangements, including parents, social and legal professionals as well as members of the Irish judiciary – were ascertained through online surveys, focus groups and semi-structured interviews. The second aspect to the study, and its principal aim, was to investigate international best practice on how best to incorporate the voices of very young children (0-6 years) in family law proceedings. The research was commissioned by the Irish Charity - One Family and was funded through the RTE Toy Show Appeal and Community Foundation for Ireland Fund. 

The report comes at a time when Ireland’s family law system is under particular scrutiny with the publication of the Family Justice Strategy for 2022-2025 by the Department of Justice last month.

Dr Aisling Parkes, Senior Lecturer, UCC School of Law commented:

“Whilst our legal system has gone some way towards acknowledging the importance of children’s rights by the introduction of Article 42A into our Constitution, unfortunately our research shows that the translation of those rights in any real and meaningful way in family law cases leaves a lot to be desired, particularly for very small children”.

Dr Simone Mc Caughren, Assistant Professor Social Studies, Trinity commented:

“We identified a stark absence of the voice of infants and very young children in the decision-making processes about contact time with parents. While court reports appear to be the primary mechanism for introducing the views of younger children into court, the lack of robust regulation and oversight in respect of such reports has led to significant concerns about the quality and effectiveness of this practice.”

Dr Stephanie Holt, Associate Professor Social Studies, Trinity said:

“This study also highlighted the need to move away from an adversarial family law system to a more inclusive and responsive model that would better serve the needs of very young children in child contact arrangements.”

CEO of One Family Karen Kiernan added:

“One Family commissioned Trinity and UCC to undertake this research because we know parents in separated families struggle to make decisions about how to manage contact time for their young children. We also hear from parents that sometimes courts make decisions about access that they have concerns about. We felt it was critical to have an evidence-based approach to this issue to support everyone to make child-centred decisions that best suit the needs of their particular child and family.       

We were delighted that the Community Foundation of Ireland were able to fund this through the RTE Toy Show Fund and we hope that this research and the guidelines will be a resource for thousands of families for years to come”.

A copy of the report is available to view here.