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

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and all Deputies for the broad support for this Bill. I think we all agree there needs to be an overhaul of our family court structures or a change to how they operate. While I firmly believe a huge number of wonderful people work in the system, from our Judiciary to legal practitioners, those in the courts and beyond, we need to put in place the building blocks and structure to allow the courts to be more family- and child-friendly and allow for mediation where issues can be resolved outside of the courts. As public representatives, we have seen many people come through our doors going through very difficult relationship breakups or breakdowns, involving children or not. Often, once it gets to the courts, it becomes even more adversarial. We need to make sure they are not waiting in a line and that they are not put to the end of the queue at the end of the day or are waiting months for access to the courts to deal with challenging situations. Where there is a dispute or where the has been abuse in a relationship, it is clear the courts are often used to further that abuse through long waits or delays, use of the in camera rule or many other avenues. The objective of this Bill is to make sure we have family courts with judges who are specialists in family law matters, who continue to upskill and train, and who want to be part of the family justice system, and where courts sit on different days with separate sittings and structures are in place. Work still needs to be done in that regard. The development of Hammond Lane will ensure we have a purpose-built family law complex, taking away the current situation in which people who may have been in an adversarial position may sit looking at each other before they into the court and the challenges that brings to finding an easy solution to that conflict. I assure Deputy Pringle that I have engaged with NGOs on issues of concern around domestic violence, abuse, coercive control or other types of abuse and that those are the changes we made in the Seanad in the past two weeks. I think it is on page 14 of the Bill. I would have to take a moment to find the exact language but I can show him afterwards. The language makes it clear that, if there are concerns on the part of the principal judge or others that dispute resolution would not be appropriate, the mechanisms are there to prevent that from being used.

Concerns have been raised about certain proceedings going to the District Court but it is very clear that, if a case is extremely complex with a lot of strands, it can be referred from the District Court to the Circuit or High Court. If a case is straightforward and the parties have for the most part agreed, there is no reason it should not go to the District Court. We have to, insofar as possible, make this as quick as we can for people. The longer these cases go on, often the more difficult they become, but there is also the cost this puts on people. I met a gentleman recently who spent €100,000 going through the courts trying to find a solution to the challenges he and his partner faced, with a child was also involved. Both sides need to be heard and listened to, but if it can be done in a way that is cost efficient and much quicker, that is what we are trying to achieve.

Deputy Durkan mentioned the issue of parental alienation, and I know is very passionate about it. It not a legally recognised concept here, but that is not say it is not being used or part of the overall conversation in courts or outside them. The most important thing we can do to deal with the issue of such a conflict in a relationship is to make sure our court system works and operates efficiently and effectively, that people have access to justice or the courts in a timely manner and that appropriate structures are in place. That is where the family justice strategy is important. The family court puts the building blocks, structure and framework in place, and all the other elements of the family justice strategy complement that. We have voice of the child and welfare reports for the first time, which was mentioned and which work has already started. There will be a structure in place that if a report is commissioned, its parameters, who commissioned or did the report and if they have the right qualifications will be known and people do not face the costly burden of paying for those reports. There is a review of the in camera rule at the moment. It has been relayed clearly to me, particularly when there is abuse in a relationship, that the in camera rule allows that abuse to continue. We need to look at that as a whole to see if changes are needed. There is also a voice of child review on top of the changes to voice of child reports and welfare reports I mentioned. That work is ongoing.

On child maintenance, a body of work has already been done by my Department with the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, and recommendations have already been acted upon. They included developing a set of child maintenance guidelines, strengthening attachment earning orders and looking at attaching an order to a PPS number rather than an employer. We are seeing that when somebody leaves a job and moves onto the next, it is easier for the person to evade payment and more difficult for the payment to be obtained. We need to make sure it follows the person not where they work and to ensure there is a single enforcement procedure, a simple bench warrant process, and that we allow deductions from the paying parent's bank account. Work is already happening with child maintenance. It is one of the biggest issues in terms of the challenges of going through the courts and where there is a breakdown and matters are not going as well as people would like.

These structures are important. I hope that, in the amendments we brought to the Seanad in recent weeks in particular, we have addressed any concerns that we are trying to pigeonhole cases into the District Court and that we are not giving proper regard to some of the more challenging cases. I hope the amendments clearly show that cases will be heard in the most appropriate court, whether that is the District, Circuit or High Court. The most important thing is that families are allowed to enter into a process that is less adversarial, does not make a situation worse, can be dealt with quickly, where children's voices are front and centre for the first time, and it will not cost people their life savings, home or anything else, which we often see happening when this goes on for so long. I thank Deputies for their contributions. I look forward to engaging with them in the coming weeks and, I hope, seeing this Bill enacted as soon as possible.

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