Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is very difficult for a Member of the Oireachtas to ask too many searching questions about the operation of the courts and the administration of justice lest we step over the separation of powers. As Dr. Saidléar has mentioned, partners are in dialogue with the Judicial Council on some of these issues. We all know this and we keep talking about it. We are having the same conversations. We can see it through anecdotes. I can see it through my constituency clinic as people come to me. I know the justice committee will do work on this but how do we get to the point where we are sitting down with judges or family law practitioners and going through the process to find where we can make things tighter, order by order and step by step through the process, to try to minimise or reduce it? We know it is happening. Is this a direct conversation we can have with judges and begin a body of work through that stream? It is not something I can do as Member of the Oireachtas. I would be stepping out of my job very considerably.