Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for coming in this morning. It has been very useful for us. We are preparing a report and are hearing from a wide variety of people. We will consider all submissions made and come up with recommendations at the end. I will start with Mr. Drakeford and Men's Voices. Speaking of men's voices, mine is vanishing so I apologise for that. Mr. Drakeford is correct that family law cases are very adversarial and acrimonious. People opt to go to court, however. Either a woman or a man makes the decision to go to court. It is not as if it is mandatorily imposed on them. How would the mandatory mediation Mr. Drakeford suggests operate? Would people have their right to go to court removed or would there be some process whereby once family law proceedings were initiated, the parties would have to get involved in the mediation process? What would happen if that mediation did not proceed?