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

What I always try to do and what any Department will try to do is respond to the asks, wishes and needs of the organisation it supports. The Department of Justice has tried, in many different ways, including financially, to support the expansion of FLAC. Any request coming into the budgetary process this year will be examined and hopefully responded to in a positive way. On the family courts, we are talking about hubs, which are structures within the current court structures. No final decision has been made on exactly where they would be but the most important thing is that there would be similar access, irrespective of where you are in the country, to those family courts. We must acknowledge that we might not be able to have one in every county but we want to make sure people have access to them in a quick and timely manner. If you look at what happened throughout Covid-19 we have tried to prioritise family law and domestic violence cases, even where the courts were closed or minimally open. Even in doing that, the number of cases that are still to be seen and the work that is required means there is an urgency in this and I am treating this in the way it should be treated.

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