Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I apologise on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, who is unavailable to be here to take this matter. However, the issue is very close to her heart and is getting her fullest attention.

I take this opportunity to inform the House of developments in regard to the establishment of specialist family courts. As the Senator is aware, the programme for Government contains a commitment to establish a dedicated family court. While it was originally anticipated that a referendum to amend Article 34 of the Constitution would be required in order to remove any constitutional obstacle to the establishment of a separate family court, it appears from more recent examination of the issues that it will be possible to proceed with the establishment of the court in a manner which does not require such a referendum, which is very positive news. This could be achieved by establishing the court as a separate division within existing court structures. The Department of Justice and Equality is currently finalising proposals for future legislation based on submissions which have been received in regard to the family court and ongoing consultations with interested parties.

I wish to outline in general terms the principle features of the proposed family court system. A district family court, a circuit family court and a family high court will be established as divisions of the existing courts. It is envisaged that judges will be appointed full-time to the district family court and the circuit family court. In the case of the family high court, it is anticipated there would not be sufficient case loads to warrant the appointment of judges full-time to family law matters. Therefore, judges of the family high court will also be able to hear other cases. The judges appointed to the family courts will be selected on the basis of their training, experience and expertise in dealing with family law matters.

The new legislation will include a set of guiding principles that will apply to all family law proceedings. These guiding principles will underline the importance of encouraging and facilitating, as far as possible, the resolution of disputes by means of alternative resolution methods, including mediation, which provide an opportunity for a less adversarial, less argumentative, less stressful and less costly resolution of disputes.The Minister intends to bring the proposals to establish the new family courts to Government as soon as they are finalised. She intends, at that point, to refer the draft general scheme of the legislation to the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality for the usual pre-legislative scrutiny conducted prior to the formal drafting of the Bill. Once again, on behalf of the Minister, I thank Senator Naughton for raising this issue.