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

I move amendment No. 15:

In page 75, between lines 12 and 13, to insert the following: “(a) in section 2, by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (1D):

“(1E) A reference in this Act to a justice shall, where the context so admits, include a reference to a judge of the Family Circuit Court.”,”.

Section 83 of the Bill provides for amendments to the Child Care Act 1991 to allow for certain childcare proceedings under that Act to come within the jurisdiction of the family court divisions.

Since the Bill was originally published, there has been ongoing engagement with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. That Department has proposed the extension of concurrent jurisdictions for the family District Court and the family Circuit Court in the broad range of care proceedings under the 1991 Act, particularly to enable especially complex cases to be dealt with at family Circuit Court level where considered necessary. The Child and Family Agency, Tusla, would be in a position, in light of the circumstances of a case, to decide the jurisdictional level at which a case should be initiated. The Child Care Act 1991 provides statutory time limits for a case to be brought before a court in the case of certain types of childcare proceedings. Provision is being made to continue to enable matters to be dealt with in the general District Court where no sitting of the relevant family court can be arranged within the time limit. This will protect the interests of the child to whom the proceedings relate. The proposed amendments to this section insert the family Circuit Court and District Court as appropriate as courts where such proceedings can be determined. An additional amendment provides as a consequential of the jurisdictional extension for the term referring to the judge of the court is clarified. The term now encompasses a judge of the family District Court, the family Circuit Court and the District Court, as appropriate. Emergency care orders can continue to be dealt with by the District Court, as they have always been, and where considerable expertise in such matters has accrued.

Consequential amendments are proposed to Schedule 2.

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