Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I too offer my congratulations to the Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, on their deserved promotions and wish them the very best in their offices. I also congratulate and thank the previous Minister, Deputy Flanagan, and the previous Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, who worked exceptionally hard in recent years.

I again highlight the issue of domestic violence, some of the practicalities around that at the moment and the question of how funding and policy are connected. Domestic violence and criminal law remain issues very much within the remit of the Department of Justice and Equality but so much of the funding and liaison are delivered through Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. We must always ask whether we are achieving, through those means, the correct gathering of information, the correct distribution of funding and the provision of essential supports for users of domestic violence services. We must gather information not just on people who contact the helpline or who come to refuges but also on people for whom those services provide outreach services in their homes. Deputy Catherine Murphy noted that it seems outrageous that somebody who has been the victim of domestic violence is the person who has to leave the family home. Given that it has been difficult in the courts system, and that it has been difficult to obtain a barring order as quickly as may be necessary for the urgent circumstances of domestic violence, we have to provide those additional services.

The problem of the disconnect I outlined arises again and again because there is another area where it is relevant. I raised this with the Minister yesterday and with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy O'Gorman, today. I refer to section 47 assessment reports, which are produced under family law. Such assessments are carried out in difficult cases of parental separation, where the court tries to assess the best interests of the child, as well as his or her views in certain circumstances. They may occur in what we might call fairly regular divorce or separation proceedings, but where it has come from a background of domestic abuse or violence, it is even more important that we are fully aware of all the tools abusers may use to manipulate the process, either to try to achieve further and continuing control over the family or members thereof, or to have access to the children where, in some circumstances, access has to be questioned. I am aware of a number of cases in my constituency that cause me great concern every day where people whose partner has received criminal convictions, either for manipulation or in one case for multiple incidents of domestic abuse, are engaged in a section 47 process where the other partner has real concerns about the capacity of that partner to manipulate the section 47 assessor.

I ask the Minister, therefore, to please consider within the courts Vote allocating some money for the training of judges in respect of coercive control to ensure they are fully up to date on that in circumstances where they are involved in family law cases. It should be provided for that section 47 assessors are fully up to date on coercive control and manipulation and how that can follow a family through the family law process in a serious way.

I am aware that the Minister has already made a commitment on these issues. I am also aware how much is to be done and I really appreciate the Minister's thought and effort in this regard.

I congratulate the Irish Prison Service on its astonishing achievement in keeping the prison population safe from Covid-19. The Covid committee has examined congregated settings in a range of contexts. It has not examined the Irish Prison Service. It is essential that it be recognised in the work of the Covid committee. We have not yet put the Central Mental Hospital on record as having no patient case. I believe there was one staff case but no patient case. These are congregated settings that are run in their entirety by the State as opposed to some of the other congregated settings we have examined. I congratulate them in this regard.

It is very welcome to see additional funding provided for the Judicial Council. It is imperative that we protect and support the Judiciary and have a strong judicial institution. It is unfortunate that we have to remind ourselves continually about the importance of the separation of powers and that judges have no function in interfering in or advising on the development of legislation or our legislative decision-making in the Oireachtas. Similarly, Members of this House have no place commenting on or criticising the decisions of judges of our courts in this State.

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