Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the Deputy's final point, and it is a significant point, we need to make sure that the system is well resourced. We can introduce legislation, but we also need to ensure that the structures and the judges are in place. I believe that in the Deputy's own county recently, a number of sittings had to be cancelled simply because the judge was sick. We need to ensure that through the separate process that is currently under way to look at judicial numbers, the system is resourced in the way that it needs to be. Separate from that, we must ensure it is not all about courts. As I said at the outset, by the time cases get to court, the process is adversarial for many people, and gets even worse. Cases cost people a lot of money, can be delayed and can take a lot of time. The family justice oversight group and its recommendations will place a particular focus on mediation and putting the child at the centre of the process. Obviously, bringing a child to court is very difficult. That, in itself, has implications. It is about trying to do everything that we can to prevent cases from getting to the stage where they are heard in court, while acknowledging that we cannot prevent all cases from getting to that stage. The legislation will be important. We must ensure that the legislation is resourced and the courts are identified across the country so that people have equal access, depending on where they are and where they live, so that they do not have to travel too far. We must also ensure that we have enough judges who are trained and who can deliver in this specific area. I thank the Deputy for his question.

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