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

This group of amendments propose to amended sections 70 and 71. Amendment No. 84 qualifies section 70, which provides for the sending forward of a case from the family District Court to the family Circuit Court where the circumstances of the proceedings make it appropriate to do so. The amendment provides that where section 72 applies, the case shall not be sent forward to the higher court. Section 72 restricts the power to transfer proceedings under sections 70 or 71 where the court has already granted a decree of judicial separation, divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership in relation to any orders by the court in question in relation to those proceedings.

Amendment No. 85 is a technical amendment inserting a cross-reference to the paragraph to be inserted by the following amendment.

Amendment No. 86 inserts an additional subsection into section 71. This is to stipulate that in family law cases that have already been commenced in the family Circuit Court and the issues before the court have been agreed between the parties while the case is being dealt with by the family Circuit Court, the court shall not send the proceedings to the District Court solely because the matters have been resolved, except where the parties to the case consent. The subsection is to provide additional clarity that the expansion of jurisdiction of the family District Court does not require cases that are already initiated in the family Circuit Court to be transferred downwards by virtue of agreement having been reached on the issue. The default position is that the case will remain to be determined in the initiating court unless the parties consent to a transfer to the lower court jurisdictions. It is considered unlikely that cases will be transferred in such circumstances but the subsection provides greater clarity for those involved in such cases.