Dr. Conor O'Mahony:

The President of the District Court has taken certain steps, certainly in the context of public law child protection proceedings, such as a practice direction on case management. However, that has only had application in the Dublin metropolitan district and, to an extent, to travelling judges. As alluded to by Dr. Walsh, the President of the District Court is limited in what he or she can do in respect of a District Court hearing in Letterkenny, Cork or elsewhere. A relatively limited amount can be achieved using that approach. If one wants this dealt with on a more consistent and unified basis across the system, one must go down the legislative route to bring in rules that will apply in the same way in each venue. We have a system with a very strong concept of judicial independence. To a certain extent, judges operate in independent kingdoms and that, broadly speaking, is one of the reasons for the level of inconsistency in family law. It is also evident in the inconsistency in judicial training: some judges are very keen to take up judicial training, but others are not. Under the current structure, it is very difficult to insist that judges undergo such training. However, if the issue were tackled on a legislative basis, one could set out the characteristics of a family court in a more structured way, which may address some of those issues.