The Department of Justice and Equality is currently working on draft legislation which will establish specialist family law court divisions within the existing court framework. The proposed legislation will see the introduction of a District Family Court, Circuit Family Court and Family High Court. The Minister for State Kevin Humphries revealed the drafting of the legislation is in the preliminary stages. He was speaking to the Seanad on behalf of the Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald following a request from Senator Hildegarde Naughton for an update on the development of the new legislation.
It was believed the introduction of the specialist courts would require a referendum in order to amend Article 34 of the Constitution, which affords each Court its individual authority. However it is now accepted that the changes can be introduced without a referendum and can instead be introduced by statute. Mr Humphries also indicated the new legislation would establish a set of guidelines which would be applicable in all family law court proceedings and would be designed to find a resolution to family disputes using alternative resolution methods, such as mediation. The objective of these guidelines is to offer a cheaper, less stressful and non-adversarial approach to solving family disputes. The new family law court divisions would be presided over by Judges selected based on their specialised training and experience in dealing with family law.
The Government will receive the proposals of the new regime as soon as the Department are finished finalising them. Following this, a draft general scheme for the statute will then be referred to the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality which the Minister hopes will then be followed by formal drafting of the Bill.
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