Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to make one comment on the section. There is a sequence of measures that come in the last number of sections, culminating in this section 90. Again, with regard to experience, it has been said to me by practitioners in this area that there is a reason we have judges who operate at High Court, Circuit Court and District Court levels. They have different skill sets, experiences, backgrounds, etc., as it should be. However, I wonder about the wisdom, and maybe this is something the Minister will bear in mind in the context of any amendments she proposes to bring forward on Report Stage and notwithstanding the safeguards she has built into all of this part of the Bill, of essentially deciding that District Court judges become the new Circuit Court judges for family law and Circuit Court judges become the new High Court judges. I feel there is a move to essentially take all family law cases and move them down one court. There may well be an argument for that. There is obviously a potential cost saving in that. However, is there a concern that the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater and that the corresponding service the litigant gets in those cases - the husband, wife or parent of the child - is going to be diminished accordingly? The Minister might give consideration in her Report Stage amendments as to whether it is a wise thing to do in all the circumstances, without perhaps throwing everything out that is in this Bill because there is value in some of the provisions and notwithstanding what she said about new dedicated judges in each of those courts, to put into a court that is not used to it a jurisdiction that is potentially going to rebound on it in terms of the work it is going to end up having to do all of a sudden. Again, I cast no aspersions on the District Court in that regard but ask whether it is wise in all the circumstances.