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

These are a series of amendments that reflect issues raised by stakeholder groups working with those affected by domestic violence. The amendments make provision to ensure that when considering the suspension of proceedings to enable mediation or other alternative dispute resolution mechanisms to occur, the court is required to endeavour to ensure that its suspension does not negatively affect the safety of any party to the proceedings or to a child to whom the proceedings relate. This is again consistent with the amendments we have just made to the guiding principles which recognise that in certain cases such as those involving domestic violence, mediation is not considered appropriate and the court should of course take account of this.