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

I thank the Senator for his overall support for the objective here, which is radical change. I do think it is needed and necessary. To the Senator's point, we have a situation where family law matters are often put at the end of a list. They are not reached by the end of the day and the next sitting is months later. As public representatives, all of us have countless people coming to us saying they cannot get a hearing to deal with the issues they want to deal with. We need to make sure we can address that while addressing other issues as well.

The overall objective of the Bill is that a separate court would remove those challenges, that we will have sittings only dealing with family law at all jurisdictions, that there will be judges specifically trained in and focused only on family law who are not dealing with fines, road traffic incidents, petty theft or crimes, and that family law gets the focus it deserves and works for the families as it is supposed to. There are fantastic people working in our family justice system across the legal practitioners, and judges who are specialising in this area already. By putting in place these structures, we can do much more to make it a more family-friendly environment.

I have engaged directly with the Bar Council and the Law Society, and with many of the organisations that deal with victims of domestic and sexual violence. Many of those families have that issue to deal with as well as a separation. I have taken on board their considerations specifically around jurisdiction. It is absolutely not the intention of the Bill that all cases would be heard automatically at the District Court. Opening up the jurisdictions means that the simpler, less complex, non-contentious cases could be determined at the lowest court.

To the Senator's point that there was a two-tier system and that people will not get the best service, at the moment people are saying to me that these cases are costing them a fortune and could be dealt with in a much easier, quicker manner. It should be available to those people to access the costs at the lower level and in the District Court where matters can be resolved in a much easier way. There is nothing in this to prevent simpler cases from going to the District Court, or for more complex cases to go to the Circuit Court or High Court. If it is decided by the judge or legal practitioners that a case needs to be moved or can be dealt with at a more appropriate level, that can be taken into consideration.

The concern is that this is not clear enough in the legislation. While I had hoped to have amendments on this Stage, they are not ready yet. I am working on amendments to make it absolutely clear that the jurisdictions and the objective here does not mean that every single case will start in the District Court. There are cases that can go directly to the High Court or to the other courts. It is important that if a case starts in the High Court and it is more appropriate to the District Court, the decision can be taken with the agreement of the practitioners but also the judges and, vice versa, if it starts in the District Court but needs to be dealt with in the High Court, that can be taken into consideration also.

It is important to note that the family District Court will have dedicated trained specialist judges. They will not have all of the other issues to deal with as well so there will not be the massive backlog that we currently have. I fully understand the concern about how we know everything will be up and running when we enact this. We need to apply the same logic to this as we do to any other legislation. Last year I enacted the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, one of the elements of which was the introduction of civil orders. These are really important to make sure that where there are stalking behaviours, they can be stopped at the earliest stage possible without having to reach the criminal threshold. While that legislation was enacted last year, the commencement order was not signed until September because I wanted to make sure that the courts were ready, and the structures were available so that when it was commenced people would be able to go directly to the courts. The same will apply here.

The work has already started to make sure we have the ability to put in place new family courts at District, Circuit and High Court level. Some 30 new judges have been allocated to all jurisdictions over the last two years. The budget this year, €11.1 million, will allow for continued expansion of staff not just to support those judges but to allow for stage 2 of the judicial planning working group, where 20 more judges will be added at all levels. That expansion will allow us then to make sure we have the Judiciary and supports in place to be able to put these separate jurisdictions up and running. As well as that, there is investment into the modernisation programme, making sure it is not just the individuals and staffing but that our systems are operating effectively as well as making sure we have investment in the overall infrastructure and buildings. That work is under way. The objective here is not to put everything into the District Court. Where that clarification is needed I will be bringing amendments on the next Stage to make it absolutely clear. It is not the case that this would be enacted where we do not have the people, the Judiciary, and the structures in place to respond to it. I have made it very clear to those involved that this will not be stood up until we know that we can respond in the most adequate way possible. I do not think it is necessary to add another layer whereby this Bill passes and then a Minister has to come back to get approval, essentially, to stand the Bill up and move things along.All the building blocks are being put in place to make sure we will have the ability to stand this up by having the resources, investment and people in place.

It is for those reasons that I cannot accept the amendment, but I understand why it was put forward. I am absolutely confident the amendments I will bring forward will clarify the concerns that have been raised directly with me. As stated, the building blocks and resources are being put in place to ensure this will not be stood up until we are certain we will have the desired effect. Families are in a difficult scenario and this is often the most difficult time in a person's life. Where issues can be resolved in a straightforward way, I want that to be able to happen such that it will not cost them a fortune whereby they end up much worse off. Where it is challenging and complex, I want them to be still able to access the High Court and go through the same system they currently have available to them.

The Senator mentioned mediation. Another objective here is that where it is possible to remove cases from the courts, that mediation will be available to people. I am bringing forward amendments today to make clear, where there are domestic violence cases or where abuse is happening in a relationship, that no one will be forced, whether directed by the judge or before that, to go into mediation where it is clearly not appropriate.