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The majority of organisations did not call for legislative change as it "ran the risk of increasing this litigiousness".

Significant recommendation to make children's voices a 'priority' in family justice system

The recommendation suggests that by including the voice of the child it ensures they are “heard and considered”.

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.”

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    Mute high ho silver
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:14 AM

    There only here because they pay feck all tax that’s what it’s all about

    173
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    Mute Paddy
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    Jul 28th 2018, 11:03 AM

    @high ho silver: and if it wasn’t here it would be somewhere else with a low corporate tax rate, don’t you think it’s good business sense to go somewhere that you can maximize your profits.

    84
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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Jul 28th 2018, 11:40 AM

    @Paddy: ‘good business sense’… uh oh.

    17
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    Mute Willy Malone
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:02 AM

    The place to be. Irish people made Bail you out if things go south..

    108
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    Mute Billy the great
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:15 AM

    Fantastic news, well done to the government for making this happen :)

    55
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    Mute Lambo Moonski
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    Jul 28th 2018, 9:50 AM

    When Moon?

    36
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    Mute Grumpeee Oldman
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    Jul 28th 2018, 9:54 AM

    @Lambo Moonski: when lambo?

    24
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    Mute CryptoSteve
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    Jul 28th 2018, 2:44 PM

    @Grumpeee Oldman: HODL!!!

    6
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    Mute Declan Grace
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:14 AM

    I don’t know what a tokenized security is

    32
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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:20 AM

    @Declan Grace: Fancy encryption.

    11
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    Mute Declan Grace
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:56 AM

    @Declan Grace: I was referring to the old tracker mortgage ad

    23
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    Mute Sean
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    Jul 28th 2018, 11:57 AM

    @Declan Grace: yeah I got it!

    6
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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    Jul 28th 2018, 2:24 PM

    @Declan Grace: Yeah. Gave you a like:0)

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    Mute windbag
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    Jul 28th 2018, 9:57 AM

    Netflix.. HSBC… Dirty money… check it out…

    63
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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Jul 28th 2018, 11:13 AM

    @windbag: that was a great documentary series

    16
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    Mute Philip Morgan
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:35 AM

    Fantastic another couple of thousand jobs for SF/PBP supporters to avoid.

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    Mute Shane Corry
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    Jul 28th 2018, 11:19 AM

    @Philip Morgan: Considering they’ve 10 employees now. I doubt they’re suddenly going to hire 2000 people.

    26
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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    Jul 28th 2018, 2:26 PM

    @Philip Morgan: LOL

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    Mute Geoff Bateman
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    Jul 28th 2018, 3:13 PM

    @Philip Morgan: and where they gonna live??

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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    Jul 28th 2018, 5:57 PM

    @Geoff Bateman:
    In a house.

    1
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    Mute @mdmak33
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:35 AM

    Such a load of BS,welcome to the most corrupt country in the world where you wont have to pay taxes.

    47
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    Mute George Hogan
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    Jul 28th 2018, 11:16 AM

    @@mdmak33: You need to read more!

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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Jul 28th 2018, 11:42 AM

    @@mdmak33: and no real journalism to investigate your activities, so zero accountability.

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    Mute Noel Larkin
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    Jul 28th 2018, 12:47 PM

    @@mdmak33: … for the record Ireland is placed at position 19 in terms of least corrupt country – for the record Denmark and New Zealand are the lead countries with Somalia and North Korea taking up the bottom spots. You’re welcome!

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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    Jul 28th 2018, 6:00 PM

    @Noel Larkin:
    Hush!!!! That doesn’t suit the agenda!

    1
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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Jul 28th 2018, 7:35 PM

    @Noel Larkin: Its actually joint 18 with japan, just behind Hong Kong and the United States. After us it starts to get quite ‘typical’ apart from a few other European countries. Love to know how they come to these conclusions… Corruption no doubt… ba boom, tsssh

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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:01 AM

    I wonder why they didn’t base themselves in London, the financial capital of Europe.

    16
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    Mute Stephen Devlin
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:06 AM

    @Danny Rafferty: Brexit means brexit

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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:22 AM

    @Stephen Devlin: I don’t know what a Red-White-and-Blue Brexit is.

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    Mute wattsed
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    Jul 28th 2018, 12:35 PM

    @Danny Rafferty: If you read the article it may enlighten you what the attraction of Ireland is over any EU country.

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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    Jul 28th 2018, 2:25 PM

    @wattsed: I was being a bit sarcky.
    Someone really should invent a font or something.
    What if they let us post in purple?

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    Mute Coin Pumper
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:01 AM

    True if Big!

    4
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    Mute FlopFlipU
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    Jul 28th 2018, 12:02 PM

    Bitcoin your only man

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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    Jul 28th 2018, 6:06 PM

    @FlopFlipU:
    I would imagine the people who bought it at over €17,000 might not agree (it’s now about €7,000)

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    Mute Pat Patovic
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    Jul 28th 2018, 9:41 PM

    @P.J. Nolan: How about those who bought it for 60?

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    Mute BitDub1878
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    Jul 29th 2018, 10:34 AM

    @P.J. Nolan: Not many did if you look at the volume then. People need to do a bit of their own research before investing & avoid the mainstream media at all costs. The new book The Bitcoin Standard is a must read for anyone interested in entering the space.
    World crypto network, jimmy song, tone vays, adam meister on youtube have tonnes of shows & guests with all the information you need also. Bitcoin morning brief by Tone Vays is a gr8 daily show

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    Mute Ixtrix Net
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    Jul 28th 2018, 12:21 PM

    Hodlgang Hodlgang Hodlgang

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    Mute Pat Patovic
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    Jul 28th 2018, 9:43 PM

    Oh so bitcoin is evil but bank created crypto is fantastic news, brilliant technology, and our bright future…
    LMAO

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    Mute Ixtrix Net
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:02 PM

    @Pat Patovic:
    the We thing is not crypto currency , it’s using blockchain tech , which just happens to also be what bitcoin uses.

    1
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    Mute Pat Patovic
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    Jul 29th 2018, 1:16 AM

    @Ixtrix Net: On the contrary. Blockchain technology is a ledger. Since this is international consortium then unit in which they will be operating this “ledger” will indeed be another cryptocurrency no matter how they will call it.
    No difference with bitcoin other than it will be fully controlled by banks and not mineable like most of the cryptos are…

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    Mute Credalytics
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    Jul 29th 2018, 9:29 AM

    @Pat Patovic: exatly, it’s okay for the banks to create money out of thin air but not joe public

    1
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    Mute BitDub1878
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    Jul 29th 2018, 10:38 AM

    @Ixtrix Net: Blockchain is just a word Satoshi used in the Bitcoin whitepaper to explain how blocks are created & verified. Companies & banks just using the word to look like they have created something amazing while in reality its just a database & they will never use as its to expensive for them.

    1
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    Mute BitDub1878
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    Jul 29th 2018, 10:28 AM

    Dont mind banks, buy & hold Bitcoin. Its the only use case for Blockchain. All these compaines just using it to sound more advanced. It’s just a database. Read the Bitcoin standard ;)

    1
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    Mute mark
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    Jul 29th 2018, 4:56 PM

    of course they would come here…we would be made bail them out in another recession.ireland is like a bookies where you simply don’t lose

    1
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