A PILOT service will give children a “structured, safe opportunity” to express their views in family-law proceedings, a conference has heard, writes Martin Steinmetz.

Siún Hurley, chair of the Family and Child Law Committee, described changes to how expert reports are commissioned and prepared, at the Law Society Family and Child Law Conference.

“The landscape is shifting beneath our feet,” the solicitor at O’Donovan, Murphy & Partners LLP in Bantry said. She welcomed the Children’s Court Advocate Pilot Service, noting: “The voice of the child is a constitutional imperative since 2015 that has by and large been ignored.”

Nicola McCarthy and Claire O’Connor of Childhood Matters explained that the pilot scheme was designed to give children accessible information and emotional support and would “ensure that the child’s own views, verbatim, reach the decision maker”.

Childhood Matters will deliver the service, which is funded by the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration and is expected to begin within the next few weeks. It will initially be available free of charge to children aged from five to 18 in the pilot area of Waterford and Clonmel before a wider rollout of the scheme is considered. The report is intended to communicate the child’s views rather than turn them into an assessment by a professional.

Where appropriate, the child may also be supported to meet the judge, while the advocate can provide feedback to the child afterwards. Consent of both parents, or guardians, is required, except where there is a court order in place.

Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme.