Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank all of our guests for their very comprehensive submissions and detail in response to the questions. I have just a couple of comments and questions I do not think have been discussed. There is mention of creation of a specialist courts structure, and it is mentioned that a constitutional amendment would not be required in this regard. Could this be performed by the president of the District Court in any event, without necessarily having to engage with the Oireachtas? Could it involve Government regarding funding in the Courts Service? Do we need to have it mandated or structured by the Oireachtas? What I would like to know is how many more judges we would require. Would existing District Court judges be siloed into a specific family law structure? How many more do they reckon we would need? The practical requirements for structuring are kind of a separate place. Would it be a regional system or would it mirror our existing District Court model? Those are just some of my questions. I will try to bank them together.

Regarding the regulations that were introduced and how the capping of the fees has made things worse, how can this be changed? Just so I can understand, is the €250 the whole fee? What is the fee structure? Perhaps our guests could provide more detail on that. Is it capped at €250 per specialist or is the fee for each general consultation? Would a number of people be involved? Will our guests answer those questions first.