Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I convey the apologies of my colleague, the Minster for Justice, Deputy McEntee, who cannot be here for this matter due to another commitment. I am happy to respond on her behalf.

On behalf of the Minister, I thank Deputy Durkan for raising this important matter and for giving me the opportunity to provide clarity on some issues. As the Deputy is aware, I am unable to comment on any individual case or category of cases. The Deputy may be interested to know that, yesterday, the Minister published the first national family justice strategy and secured Government approval for the family court Bill 2022, which will be published in the coming days. These are the mechanisms by which the Minister intends to reform how our family justice system operates to make it more efficient, more user-friendly and less adversarial, and to develop a system that puts the family at the centre of its work. Everybody will welcome that. This is a key commitment in the Minister's Justice Plan 2022. The family court Bill will provide many of the building blocks essential to the reform of the family justice system. The Bill will create new dedicated family courts as divisions within the existing court structures, with family court judges assigned on a full-time basis.

To support the legislative changes proposed in the family court Bill, the Minister established a family justice oversight group to develop the first national strategy for the reform of the family justice system. The oversight group was chaired by the Department of Justice and made up of representatives from the main statutory agencies across the family justice system. The work of the group was informed by a wide-ranging consultation process. As well as relevant stakeholders and members of the public, a bespoke consultation took place with children and young people who engage with the family justice system. The strategy has nine goals and more than 50 actions, with the aim of establishing a strong foundation for a future system that will be child and family centred, and more streamlined and user-friendly, which everybody will welcome. Among the actions in the strategy is the examination of the role of expert reports in the family law process and to make recommendations regarding their future application and function.

In addition to this progress, the Minister recently held a public consultation on the topic of parental alienation, which the Deputy referred to. This provided a valuable opportunity to stakeholders and citizens to express their views on this complex issue and inform her Department's thinking on whether any legislative or policy changes may be required. All views, opinions and experiences submitted as part of that consultation have been welcomed and the responses received are under review.

We can never ignore lived experience so I hope this answers some of the Deputy's questions.

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