Derek McDowell (Labour)

That Mills & Boon function is for the artists and authors in our society. Legislators have to deal with reality. My Department's aim is to deal with this expeditiously, to establish this group, to have a highly-qualified chairman, to set a reasonable timeframe for a report and to allow the Minister and the Department to bring that report to the Oireachtas for consideration in short order. As Senator Browne said, the situation is unsatisfactory. Between the two polar extremes of possible values to be attached to pre-nuptial agreements there must be a middle way. It is not clear everybody has thought through all the implications. I do not criticise anybody. There are issues to which one would instinctively attach more weight than others. It is easier to attach weight to a pre-nuptial agreement on property than on custody rights because in guardianship and custody issues the interest of the child is paramount. Therefore, a pre-nuptial agreement is probably not worth the paper on which it is written. The court has to make a decision primarily in the interests of the child. When we talk about pre-nuptial agreements we should bear in mind that they are not limited to deciding property issues. Sometimes they purport to extend to other issues. These are the kinds of issues an expert group would have to examine. It would have to decide which categories are most important and whether we would ask a court to attach much weight to a pre-nuptial agreement that stipulated that in the event of a divorce the father should have custody of the children. What value would such an agreement, made before a marriage or a child even exists, have?