Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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1502.To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to report on the delays in establishing the Mediation Council. [31671/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The formation of the Mediation Council of Ireland is a key component of the Mediation Act 2017 and the overall development of mediation throughout Ireland. The Council will play an important role in promoting public awareness of mediation, maintaining and developing mediation standards – including continuous professional development – and establishing a national register of mediators.

Before a Ministerial Order can be made to designate a body as the Mediation Council of Ireland, the Mediation Council will first need to be established in its full membership of not less than eleven members, of which six, including the chair, must be public interest members. The Council must also act under its own agreed terms of association as intended by the Oireachtas under the relevant legislation. Following renewed efforts by the mediation sector to advance the proposed Mediation Council’s establishment to a stage whereby I can be in a position to designate the body, a plenary meeting of the sector was held on 22 February 2024, with the support of the Legal Aid Board, and with senior officials from my Department in attendance.

This meeting agreed a clear map of direction that the mediation sector along with support from my Department can work towards. Arising from the meeting, a Mediation Council Shadow Group has now been convened by the Legal Aid Board with the support of my Department, and comprises representatives of mediation interests. The first meeting took place on 20 June 2024. The agreed terms of reference provide that the group will principally work to establish a body as envisaged by Section 12 of the Mediation Act, 2017. The terms of reference further provide that the Group will:

• review and agree arrangements for research;
• consider how to maintain and develop standards in the provision of mediation, to include a system of CPD training;
• develop a common Code of Practice, with potential input and involvement as needed from other statutory bodies;
• consider how a Register of Mediators could be established, maintained and would operate;
• consider and agree the criteria for the eleven members of the Council (and be reflective of the criteria set out in the Schedule to the Act); and,
• seek to work with the Department of Justice with the aim of bringing forward the case for an alternative funding model.