Last Sunday, I took part in an event called Walk In Our Shoes. It is a one mile walk for the reform of Ireland's family law court system. There was a walk in each of the 26 counties. It was a peaceful walk and at the end, children's shoes were placed on the steps of a courthouse to symbolise that the real victims of the family law system are the children. I hear from mothers a lot of the time whose relationships have broken down, whether due to violence or coercive control, and access to the children has been granted through a court order. However, the children are terrified and do not want to go to spend time with that partner, yet they are made to go because of the court order. If the mother sends her child, she is heartbroken. The child is crying and upset, having nightmares and so on. If she does not send her child, she is in breach of a court order.

The family law court is not transparent. It needs to be transparent and trauma informed. It needs to be trustworthy and accountable, but it is not at the moment. The in camera rule means that every decision is down to an independent judge. There is no consistency across the system and that needs to change. We need to have judges who are educated in trauma and know how to recognise it. We also need social workers and others who work for Tusla to have education in trauma. I have spoken with Tusla about it and I am disappointed by its lack of support for women in this situation. It says one thing but does not provide support on the ground. I have lots of examples of this where I have reached out to it but it is washing its hands and saying that there is nothing to investigate. It does not have specialised people willing to talk to children to find out what the truth is. Children's rights need to be protected. Instead of looking at it as a parent having a right to see a child, we should look at it as the child having the right to see a parent if they so want to and feel safe. Their safety has to be protected as a first call.

There is a national day of action for this campaign today and people are walking from the Four Courts to Leinster House. The walk is leaving at 12 noon. They will be here shortly, so maybe people will go out to meet them.