Vincent P Martin (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The heart of this is to be child-centred, which is very important. Perhaps on another day we could look at removing some of the legalese, to demystify the law, and to make it and the workings of the legal system more accessible to the people who use the courts.

A separate building is so important for family law matters. I recall a couple of years when the Circuit Court family law sittings did their best at a time when the courthouse was unavailable and the court sat in a nearby hotel with a ballroom, which was not appropriate. It was a licensed premises during the day. There was a long entrance to the court. I remember that people can be very stressed and worried if it is their first time in court. My last word was to my client to ask them not to worry as I was trying to calm the situation down. There was an emergency contempt of court matter immediately before us and the result of that matter was that the person who was found in contempt of court was shouting and screaming while being hauled out of a long corridor by two gardaí. The next thing was that my client had to walk down that foreboding corridor. It was highly inappropriate.

There is also the issue of the acoustics in court and I know that this will be a professionally assigned building on days when it is not sitting to hear other matters.

I recall once having a client whose family home was in jeopardy under a repossession order and nobody could hear anything in court. That was wrong. I remember the multiple visits to court which have to be tackled, together with the spiralling costs. I had another client where the person was sure that a protracted, contentious matter was going to be all over as it was in for final orders. The acoustics were very bad and I warned the client that it was looking very good that we would get our matter dealt with that day, and all of the rest. When we went back to the consultation room after our short hearing, my client surprised us with a gift of spontaneous refreshments. I had the task of apologising and telling her that the judge had not ruled, and had informed us that due to circumstances beyond his control that he could not deal with it that day. That was an extra annoyance and stress on that client.

This, I inform the Minister, is all very good. I welcome the way the Minister is prioritising this and he has the full support, I hope, of everyone in the House. This is a very good day. A specialised divisional court to deal with this area is long overdue and I am very impressed with the monetary jurisdictions, and how there is flexibility within Government on regulations. Also, if parties consent, they can contract out, in a manner of speaking, of the monetary jurisdiction and have the matter heard at the lowest effective level, which will be less expensive on the parties, with the spiralling costs as they are. I hand over now to Senator Pauline O’Reilly and apologise if I have spoken at too great a length.