Mr. Brendan Ryan:

We support the Government's commitment on family law courts. My concern about any additional services provided is that they are appropriately resourced. If there are dedicated family law courts, they cannot be tacked onto existing structures. If it is to be taken seriously and to be professional, a new structure must be put in place. At present in Dublin, there is no issue of family law matters being dealt with at the same time as other cases, either criminal or civil. In the High Court, the courtrooms are on the fourth floor of Áras Uí Dhálaigh and in the Circuit Court, they are heard in Phoenix House, where my office is. In the District Court, they are heard in Dolphin House. Around the country, there are 35 Circuit Court offices and 33 District Court areas where family law cases are held. In the District Court, every district has a separate family law day. During those family law days, particularly when the court sits in the smaller venues in which there is only one courtroom, only family law is dealt with. If it is in a provincial town where there are two or three courtrooms, the scheduled sitting of the District Court on family law might tag into a Circuit Court dealing with civil or criminal matters. Similarly, the Circuit Court has scheduled family law sittings but every now and then, particularly when it sits in the bigger venues with three or four courtrooms, the District Court might sit there on the same day and might deal with other matters. This issue will always exist with regard to family law courts sitting at the same time as other courts. It does not happen that often around the country and it does not happen in Dublin. The only way around that is to build separate venues with a huge cost to the Exchequer. It is a matter of management, the Judiciary and practitioners getting together to ensure that where it happens, they are kept apart. We spent about €250 million up to 2008-2009 on our building programme. Those 52 venues and the seven new court buildings all have excellent family law facilities. As we roll out our building programme, we will ensure that these facilities are enhanced. We do our best to ensure that family law is kept separate from other court business. At times, we cannot do that but we will continue to try to do so.

To return to the Deputy's point, the Government needs to fund the family law structure. Not everything should end up in the courts. To fund this properly, money should be made available to the Legal Aid Board, the Probation Service and family mediation services. The more people out of the courtroom environment, the better. There is a view that a mediated settlement is a much more sustainable settlement compared to one decided by a judge. By and large, judges would prefer if settlements were mediated. That requires investment and support of those bodies and extra funding for bodies, such as the Probation Service, to provide reports on child care issues. That is funding the Courts Service does not have.