Open Consultation on the Future of Family Justice

In September 2020, the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee, T.D. established the Family Justice Oversight Group. The main role of the Group is to identify ways to modernise and improve family justice and people’s experience of the system.

The Group is made up of representatives from the Department of Justice; the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform; the Courts Service; the Legal Aid Board; and members of the Judiciary.

As part of its work, the Group wants to hear from you about your experiences of family justice to help it to decide what a future family justice system might look like. Your contribution lets you have your say on how we can improve things for the benefit of all.

A separate consultation with children and young people will be carried out to capture their unique and important experiences of the family justice system.

Family justice can involve addressing matters like:

• Separation
• Divorce
• Access
• Custody
• Maintenance
• Guardianship
• Child care, protection and welfare (i.e. cases involving Tusla)
• Domestic violence
• Other family relationship issues

We are interested in hearing about all types of experiences – whether you were involved in court proceedings or not.

What might have helped you or other family members as you were going through your experience? Would particular supports or services have helped? If so, what would they have been? Some examples might include: easier access to information; other ways of solving the problem that did not involve having to go to court; accessing services, including the courts, online; better training for the people you dealt with in your case; different types of supports for you, your children and other persons involved in the family dispute; or other things you think might have helped.

We would like you to complete the survey at the link below to share your experiences. You can do so completely anonymously and in confidence.

If you are or were involved in a family court proceeding, it is important that you do not provide any information on what occurred at any court proceeding. This is because family cases in court usually occur in private (‘in-camera’) and those involved are not allowed to talk about them to anyone not involved in them. The survey will close at 6pm on Friday, 11th June 2021 .

All the responses received to this survey will be reviewed and used by the Family Justice Oversight Group to help it to decide what the future family justice system might look like. Your contribution lets you have your say on how we can improve things for the benefit of all.

After all our consultation processes have finished, we hope to publish a report outlining what people have told us about their experiences and their views on the system.