Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Two things the Minister said prompted a reflection on my part. Regarding the requirement that there be no reasonable prospect of reconciliation between the spouses, it is extremely important that provision be made in this regard as a condition of providing for the dissolution of marriage. Those of us who come from a rural background know that this issue keeps coming up. Without casting any judgments on any of the individuals or perspectives involved, there are people in possession of land who think twice about getting married and choose to cohabit, and I hear from time to time people calling for the recognition of prenuptial agreements and all kinds of things. I do not know whether one would describe it as an intended or an unintended consequence, but the very necessary requirement that provision be made shows, in the context of divorce and laws providing for the dissolution of marriage, that this can, unfortunately, have a chilling effect on people getting married at all. For reasons that I will touch on at a later point in this debate, this is very regrettable. Regarding the business of there being no reasonable prospect of reconciliation between the spouses, the Minister has effectively just said he is not aware that it is ever invoked or ever critical. I do not wish to put words in his mouth but I have never heard of a situation in which a divorce was delayed in this regard. I may be wrong, however. I do not practice law now, I do not practice in the family courts and hardly ever did, and I would be happy to be contradicted on this if there were evidence to the effect that this requirement is ever even a factor in delaying a process or-----