In June 2006, the Government appointed Professor Finbarr McAuley and Mr Geoffrey Shannon as Special Rapporteurs on Child Protection. The Rapporteurs are independent legal experts whose functions are to keep under review and to audit legal developments for the protection of children; assess what impact, if any, litigation in national and international courts will have on child protection and to prepare, annually, a report to be submitted to the Oireachtas, setting out the results of the previous year's work. This is the first of report of Professor Finbarr McAuley and was submitted to the Oireachtas for consideration in December 2007. The views expressed in the report are those of the author.