THERE HAS BEEN a significant recommendation for children’s voices to be heard more clearly within the justice system to tackle parental alienation.

Parental alienation is where one parent attempts to alienate the other from their children to sever the relationship between them.

New research has shown that a “narrow range of interventions” have been done by Irish courts, in cases where alienation may be present.

The research, commissioned by the Department of Justice, also found that Irish courts do not have a definitive description of parental alienation. 

A number of policy recommendations have been made, by the Department for Justice, around the voice of children within the family courts and additional training.

A research report and a policy paper, published by the Minister yesterday, made a number of recommendations to tackle parental alienation in Ireland.

The department recommended that children should be heard in family courts as “the weight that is attached to children’s views” in court can have a major impact on the claims of alienation.

‘Progress is being made’

The recommendation suggests that by including the voice of the child it ensures they are “heard and considered” and that it will be the responsibility of a working group to review and develop methods to take on the guidance.

Chairperson of Alienated Children First, an advocacy group who represent alienated children and their parents, Janice O’Neill said: “We are generally pleased to see that progress is being made on protecting children in high conflict situations including parental alienation.”

450 responses were received from a public consultation, including 19 interest groups, who expressed that family law services must be improved, the children’s voice must be included and the introduction of training in family law is required for justice professionals.

The majority (73%) of organisations that the department consulted with did not call for legislative change as new laws ran the risk of increasing the litigiousness in cases which are “already highly contentious”, according to Treoir, an information service for unmarried parents.

Additional Training

The policy paper published by the Minister also outlined that additional supports such as the right to protection and safety are required and recommended additional training.

Alienated Children First echoed calls for additional training particularly due to a number of other jurisdictions exploring how best to include the voice of the child to avoid manipulation in conflicting cases.

Harris said the findings “point to the need for additional research” on, amongst other things, the impact of family breakdown on children-parent relationships and children’s views of the family law system.

O’Neill said that regulation and training means it will ensure that the authentic voice of the child is protected and reported.

The Justice Minister said the recommendations contained in the policy paper “underpin the need to see the matter through a broader family justice lens”.

“This is about placing children at the heart of the system which is further enabled to hear them, about supporting and training legal professionals to better understand and support families with their needs and improving what we know about family justice through better data collection,” Harris added.

A spokesperson for the ACF said: “We look forward to information, training and support on parental alienation being rolled out for families dealing with these situations and their incorporation into the Department of Justice strategy and practice.”