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Dáil
‹ Order of Business

Family courts and mediation legislation

Summary

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn seeks legislation to improve the family courts process and introduce mediation; the Minister says the mediation Bill will be published early next year, while the family court Bill has no date.

On promised legislation, last week TheJournal.ie website covered the family courts in an excellent series of reports. The suffering of families which must endure this family courts process was quite harrowing. In fairness, Ministers have, on a number of occasions, promised that the Government will bring in legislation to address this. The first Bill to which I draw the Minister's attention is the mediation Bill which would ask families, when they initially break up, to engage in mediation to, hopefully, find a resolution which avoids them having to go through the whole process of the courts and all that comes with that, including the huge costs to families that entails. The second Bill to which I refer is the family court Bill. Having read through those harrowing reports and excellent journalism last week, when will the Government bring in these Bills to address this issue once and for all?

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We have no date yet for publication of the family court Bill. The mediation Bill will be published early next year.

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