On 5 November, the Child Care Law Reporting Project was launched by the Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald. The purpose of the project is to research and report on child care proceedings in the Courts. The project will be run by former legal affairs editor for the Irish Times, Dr. Carol Coulter.
Court proceedings concerning child care are generally of a sensitive nature and as such are held in camera and written judgments are rarely provided. This new initiative will allow for Dr. Coulter to oversee the publication of short reports of actual cases on a dedicated website. All information will be anonymised, thus still ensuring that the privacy of each individual is protected. In addition, detailed data will be collected and the information will be used to identify patterns and highlight aspects which may require amendment or attention.
The Child Care (Amendment) Act 2007 allowed for the establishment of such a project yet this provision has not been invoked until now. Both the Ryan Report and the Report of the Independent Child Death Review Group recommended for the provision of a reporting mechanism in child care cases .
Dr. Coulter said “I am a firm believer in the administration of justice in public in order to promote public confidence in the justice system...” The project's advisory board contains experts in the area of child protection including former Supreme Court Judge Catherine McGuinness, the Government Rapporteur on Child Protection, Geoffrey Shannon, and Noeline Blackwell, Executive Director of FLAC.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Justice and Equality, Alan Shatter, recently promised proposed legislation in the coming weeks to amend the in-camera rule currently in place.
Click here to read an article from the Irish Times on the project.