Mr. Keith Walsh:

I think all of the groups represented here sit down regularly with the Department of Justice and Equality and the Courts Service to set out all of the issues we have ventilated. We also have a users group with the Legal Aid Board because the Law Society of Ireland wants to support the solicitors with the Legal Aid Board who are overworked and underfunded. We get both sides.

In respect of premises, there is a vacant lot on Church Street, beside the corner of the Four Courts, which approximately four or five years ago was earmarked for the new system of family justice. It was apparently given the green light, but the project is now stalled somewhere between the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Department of Justice and Equality. The Law Society of Ireland and, I am sure, the other groups represented here have been in constant touch with the Department about moving the project on. If it was enacted in Dublin, it would be the flagship for the integrated system of specialist family justice, with the mediation services of the Legal Aid Board and alternative dispute resolution, ADR, service providers. It would house the Children Court which is where criminal issues involving children go, public law cases, private law cases, the Circuit Court and the High Court. It would be the ideal way to deal with it. We went very far into the detail of its format and lay-out. We say the specialist division of the family court cannot wait and that we must make the best of what we have in the Courts Service. We will have to identify the regional centres and see whether this can be rolled out. We are talking to the Courts Service about this, but we really cannot wait for the buildings to be built. We have to do the best with what we have got. Family law has always been the poor sister or relation in the allocation of resources, but we need to see this specialist court being set up as soon as it can be. It may be that it has to move a little ahead of the premises, but if we are to wait for the buildings to be built, we will never have a specialist division of the family court. We will have to do our best with what we have and perhaps think creatively with the Office of Public Works, the Courts Service and the Department of Justice and Equality and say that while they may not have the facilities required, we want to press ahead with this project. Unfortunately, it will never be fully resourced. The best may be the enemy of the good in that regard.