Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Question 383: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if new legislation will be brought in to stop the abuse and ordering of protection and barring orders without onus on proof. [2194/07]

Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Question 384: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when new legislation will be brought in to provide consistency in Family Court judgments instead of the lottery system that is prevalent. [2195/07]

Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Question 385: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if safeguards will be brought in for the protection of innocent fathers against allegations by mothers. [2196/07]

Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Question 387: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when he will take the matter of domestic violence against men seriously; and the provisions he envisages making to rectify this anomaly. [2198/07]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 383 to 385, inclusive, and 387 together.

Policy in the law on barring, protection and safety orders is comprehensively contained in the Domestic Violence Acts of 1996 and 2002 so as to apply equally in support of men and women whose safety or welfare requires it because of the conduct of the other spouse or partner. The Act of 1996 prescribes that where the court, on application to it, is of the opinion that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the safety or welfare of the applicant or any dependent person so requires, the court may make either a barring order, a protection order or a safety order. In the case of the granting of an interim barring order i.e. an order made between the making of an application for a barring order and its determination, the court must (under the Act of 1996) be of the opinion that: (a) there is an immediate risk of significant harm to the applicant or any dependent person if the order is not made immediately, and (b) the granting of a protection order would not be sufficient to protect the applicant or any dependent person.

In the Act of 2002 I made provision that the application for an interim barring order must be made either on affidavit or on sworn information and, if the order is made ex parte, a note of the evidence given together with the court order and the affidavit or sworn information must be served on the respondent as soon as practicable.

While I have no proposals for change in the two Acts, their operation continues to be reviewed in my Department. Moreover, I have, in the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004, provided for the relaxation of the in camera rule by way of allowing preparation of reports in family law proceedings while continuing to respect the confidential nature of family law cases.

Until recently, it has been difficult to draw any reliable conclusions on the outcomes of family law cases due to the strict application of the in camera rule. This, however, changed as a result of Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 (Section 40(3)) Regulations 2005 (S. I. No. 337 of 2005). The regulations allow certain classes of persons — namely mediators, researchers and persons engaged by the Courts Service — to attend family court sittings, subject to Ministerial approval, in order to draw up and publish reports. Approval is subject to certain safeguards including a requirement that the parties to a case or any relevant child would not be identifiable. Under the scheme, I have approved one family mediator, and several other persons engaged in family law research.

In addition, in October of last year the Courts Service engaged a family law reporter on a one year pilot basis to record and produce reports on family law proceedings for distribution to the media and the public. The project will record and create reports of family law proceedings for the first time; will gather, assess and present meaningful statistics on family law matters before the courts; and will assemble and distribute information regarding the family law process and courts.