Mattie McGrath criticises family law failures and watchdog cuts

I do. Look, welcome. Any efforts made to reform the family law courts and the very fact that when you think of, you know, a courthouse like Clarence Mellon and the Tipperary and Nina, you don't have the facilities there for a separation of families from the criminal law. So they're all in the one building. And that doesn't, you know, make for good or pleasant or easy management for anybody, but more importantly for the family. And I would also welcome the fact, and I'm always critical, but we were, Clarence Mellon was bundled in, was one in Cork, I think, with the new family, the child family courts. And thankfully that's been unbundled and we're making some progress in Clarence Mell because Clarence Mellon's been waiting for a gas station for, God, 70 years. It was first raised here by Sean Tracy, that was 60 years ago. And the fact was that Clarence Mellon was bundled in the courthouse with the family law. They're two different, the Clarence Mellon gas station, they're two different items altogether. No comparison. And you'll get, you know, FDI projects, direct funding, build and deliver, and, you know, people to do that for, but you won't get it for, quote, not the same people, not the same architectural ambience. It's different. So that was a welcome issue. But, Minister, there's lots of issues in the family courts. And the fact that the children have been separated and children go missing in the state care, surely God, that must cost you sleepless nights. Minister Roger Cogarmann says that Tusla and their actions don't cause them any loss of sleep. We had a case in Donegal last week where her mother was acquitted by a jury after a 10-week trial, that she was acquitted by a jury of accusations of six to be abusing her child. The children were taken and separated. And, indeed, it went on for, as I said, 10 weeks, going on for years. She was accused, she had lived in a terribly violent relationship. And then the mother becomes victimised by the state. Thankfully, a jury, which is the ultimate in our court trials, as we were peers, cleared this woman, but the damage done to the children. And the ongoing damage done to children across the state, taking a decay. And I met the foster parents here last week, and we must support them as well, but all is not well with the family law courts. And all is not well. And the fact that Minister Roger Cogarmann has defunded... NGOs of all shapes and sizes are getting over 6 billion in funding, but he defunded the family law probe. And they were the only people, only watchdog, that were adjudicating on what's going on in family law. And just because he didn't like the report, because they were rightly, rightly critical of, of, of what's going on in the children's courts, and what's going on with Tusla. Just defunded them just like that. How could he be so, what do I call it, biased in his opinion, and say that, like, I'd love to be able to say that, I don't have a sleepless night, but a child goes missing. One child, I don't mind saying, it has a number of them in state care. And we saw the case in Cork, when the university did the, did the investigation, the children in care, in state care, were being trafficked, and being used in brothels. It's sickening. It's revolting. As a grandparent of, of, of, you know, children. So, it's, it's, it's, it's, there are many, many issues that need to be sorted out here, and this bill is not addressing many of them, and, it's time that we did, and we, and I'm pleading, and I know it's not in the bill, but I'm pleading that, that, that funding be restored to that one watchdog that was there, safeguarding children. Thank you.