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Establishment of a national Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) service within an Executive Office of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs will replace the current ad-hoc system of GAL appointments in child care proceedings

Reform of the GAL system will benefit a much  greater number of children and young people in the future.

The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone TD, has announced extra funding under Budget 2020 of €2.8 million in 'seed capital' funding which will allow for the establishment of a national guardian ad litem (GAL) service within an Executive Office of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

The Minister published the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2019 in August. This Bill addresses significant inadequacies in existing Guardian ad litem (GAL) provisions under Section 26 of the Child Care Act 1991. Its objective is to regulate the existing system of GAL appointments and to extend the system so that GALs can be made available to any child who would benefit from one within the public law system.

Introducing proper governance structures for GAL expenditure and a uniform national fee structure for GALs and their legal representatives, which is transparent and represents value for money, under the planned Executive Office, will free up resources to provide this service to a much greater number of children into the future. It is planned that the new national service which will be operational early in 2021 will facilitate a significant increase in GAL services within existing resources once fully established.

In announcing the €2.8 million funding Minister Zappone said:

I welcome this funding which will allow for the establishment of a new national GAL service within an executive office of my Department.  I am currently bringing the Child Care (Amendment) Bill 2019 through the Oireachtas and am delighted that this ‘seed capital’ allocation for the set-up phase of the new GAL service will allow us to get ready to implement this much needed reform once it has been enacted. This reform will result in a high quality, standardised service, which will be available to a much larger number of vulnerable children who are the subject of public law care proceedings across the country. “I am strongly committed to the reform of the current “ad hoc” GAL system and to regulate it to benefit the greatest number of children and young people to ensure that a child’s view is always effectively conveyed to the Court in child care court proceedings. Provision has been made for this in Budget 2020.