asked the Minister for Justice the total number of applications made to the High Court in each of the years 1983, 1984 and 1985 for decrees of divorce a mensa et thoro; and the total number of such decrees granted in each of the said years by the High Court exercising its original jurisdiction.

14.

asked the Minister for Justice the total number of applications made to the Circuit Court in the years from 1 August 1982 to 31 July 1983; from 1 August 1983 to 31 July 1984; and from 1 August 1984 to 31 July 1985; for decrees of divorce a mensa et thoro and the total number of such decrees granted in each of the said years by the Circuit Court.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 and 14 together. The information, in so far as it is available, is as follows:

Circuit Court

* Statistics in relation to the number of applications and decrees granted in 1985 are being compiled and will be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as possible.

High Court

I should mention that 14 of the 15 applications made to the High Court in 1985 are still awaiting disposal.

Arising from the Minister's reply—

The Deputy will bear in mind that this is a statistical question.

Yes, but it has been answered. Would the Minister agree that the figures given, when taken in the context of the known level of marital breakdown, indicate that this jurisdiction is not usable by the overwhelming bulk of the population? Would he agree that something needs to be done about that situation as a matter of urgency, in other words that this one facet of family law which is open under existing legislation cannot be availed of by the population at large for financial or other reasons? Does the Minister have any proposals to revise that situation?

That is a wider question than that on the Order Paper. I agree with Deputy Taylor that the figures I have given indicate that this avenue is not used to a large extent but how to intrepret that is a different day's work.