Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

As legislators, we do that all the time in different Bills. We have done it for the Multi-Unit Development Bill 2009 by insisting on mediation and alternative dispute resolution as a statutory concept, in order to obviate the necessity for people to go to court. Indeed, for disputes involving Government Departments, the State Claims Agency insists that mediation and alternative dispute resolution be used. The Government is absolutely adamant that mediation will be used on every possible occasion. We liaise with the Courts Service and the Judiciary to ensure that this is available to people who are consenting to this particular way of proceeding.

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