Minister McEntee announces the passage of the Family Courts Bill through the Seanad
- Foilsithe: 17 Deireadh Fómhair 2024
- An t-eolas is déanaí: 12 Aibreán 2025
The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, TD, has today (Thursday) welcomed the passage of the Family Courts Bill 2022 by the Seanad.
Once enacted, the Bill will provide for the establishment of family court divisions within the existing court structures, a Family High Court, a Family Circuit Court and a Family District Court.
Judges will be assigned to the Family Courts divisions on a full-time basis who have specialist training or experience in dealing with family law matters.
The Family Courts Bill is a key component in the ongoing implementation of the Family Justice Strategy, which is driving reforms to create a more efficient and user-friendly family justice system that puts the family and children at the centre of its work.
Minister McEntee said:
“Today marks an important milestone in the much-needed reform of our Family Justice system.
“It is an unfortunate, but increasingly common reality for families to need the support of the courts and the justice system to reach a resolution to issues such as relationship breakdown, custody and guardianship arrangements and maintenance payments.
"People are navigating these processes at a time when they are often personally at their most vulnerable, adding to an already heavy burden of stress on families.
“Unfortunately, our family justice system in its current form does not always offer a smooth transition through these changes in a family’s life.
“One of the ways the Bill seeks to address this is by the inclusion of a set of guiding principles for the family court system to make the best interests of the child a primary consideration in all family law proceedings, to operate in an efficient and user-friendly manner and to encourage active case management by the courts.”
Key reforms contained in the Bill include:
• the establishment of a Family Court as divisions within the existing court structures;
• the assigning of judges on a full-time basis to the Family Court divisions - judges who, by reason of their training or experience, are suitable to deal with matters of family law;
• the creation of new positions of Principal Judge of the Family High Court, Family Circuit Court and Judge of the Family District Court to ensure proper and effective management of these Courts;
• ongoing professional training in the area of family law for judges will be required;
• allowing for joint applications to be made under for judicial separation, divorce, and dissolution of civil partnership, and supporting mediation and alternative dispute resolution in such cases and;
• the establishment of a dedicated Family Law Rules Committee, or alternatively, Family Law Sub-Committees of the general Courts Rules Committees, to ensure that the rules of court in relation to family law proceedings are coherent and applied with consistency across all levels of the family courts.
Furthermore, additional wording has been inserted at Seanad Committee Stage in the Bill’s guiding principles for the conduct of family law proceedings.
Minister McEntee continued:
“These amendments are aimed at ensuring the safety of parties to proceedings is considered, including when considering whether parties should engage in mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution.
“New provisions regarding prohibition on personal cross examination have also been inserted, similar to those in the Domestic Violence Act 2018.
“These actions, coupled with other actions within the Family Justice Strategy, will ensure our family justice system works better for everyone engaging with it, but particularly for those who need additional supports and protections, such as domestic violence victims.”
The Bill will also 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.
Minister McEntee added:
“I am determined that the new Family Court structures will work effectively and there will be extensive preparatory work in advance of the legislation coming into force in order to ensure this.”
The various actions that have already been completed are noted in the progress report on the Family Justice Strategy, which was published on 23rd September and is available at: https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/ba1a5-progress-report-on-the-family-justice-strategy-2022-2025/.
ENDS
Notes for Editors
Key principles of the Family Courts Bill
• The best interests of every child involved or likely to be affected by the outcome of family law proceedings shall be a primary consideration in the conduct of the proceedings and the child’s views should be ascertained where practicable and given due weight, having regard to the child’s age and maturity.
• The court should encourage and facilitate as far as possible the resolution of issues in dispute by means of alternative resolution methods, such as mediation - except in cases where this would not be appropriate, such as domestic violence cases.
• Promotion and engagement by the court in active case management practices.
• Proceedings should be conducted in a manner that is user-friendly for the parties, identifies the issues in dispute, minimises, as far as possible, conflict between the parties, and is just, expeditious and likely to minimise costs of those proceedings.