Tony Gregory
Ceist:165 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Justice the reason probation and welfare reports are not currently provided in child care cases; and his views on the non-provision of these reports. [3105/96]
Written Answers. - Child Care Cases.
The probation and welfare service has no statutory basis to provide reports to the court in child care cases or any other areas of family law.
Courts have over the last 20 years sought assistance from the probation and welfare service personnel in two family law issues that predominantly occupy the district court when handling family law business, i.e.: application for guardianship orders, or for custody or access to children and applications for barring and for maintenance. This has always been done with the consent of the parties involved.
While growth in recent years in the number of family law cases together with the increase in statutory criminal law workloads has meant that priority has to be given to criminal law work, the probation and welfare service are willing to provide reports, if requested by the residing judge, as staffing resources become available.