Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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322. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when she intends to bring forward the Family Courts Bill 2022. [28324/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, my Department is leading a programme of family justice reform set out in the first Family Justice Strategy 2022-2025. The Strategy outlines the steps needed to create a more efficient and user-friendly family court system that puts the family and children at the centre of its work.

A key component of the Strategy is the enactment of a Family Courts Bill which provides for the establishment of family court divisions within the existing court structures. This means there will be a Family High Court, a Family Circuit Court and a Family District Court, each dealing with family law matters as appropriate to its jurisdiction. Each of the Family Court divisions will have judges assigned to them on a full-time basis. The Bill includes guiding principles for the family court system that the Court, legal practitioners and the parties to the proceedings must have regard to.

A further aim of the Bill is to enable a greater proportion of non-contentious family law matters to be dealt with at Family District Court level, in order to provide local access to the court system and to enable family law issues to be dealt with in the simplest and most cost efficient way, reducing the stress faced by litigants in such cases.

Work is ongoing on the drafting of Committee Stage amendments to the Bill. My Department is continuing to engage with stakeholders on issues raised, and is working with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel to address them as the Family Courts Bill proceeds. There will be extensive preparatory work in advance of the legislation coming into force to make sure the new Family Courts will work effectively.

I am hopeful that Seanad Committee Stage will be scheduled prior to the summer recess. As the Deputy will appreciate, the scheduling of Oireachtas business is a matter for the Houses of the Oireachtas.