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Dáil
‹ Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation

Family law access cases

Summary

Deputy Durkan urged quick legislation to address long-term denial of access between children and parents based on dubious expert evidence in family law cases. The Minister said the Family Courts Bill and family justice strategy were intended to improve the system and support families.

Bernard Durkan Deputy Bernard J. Durkan Fine Gael

I acknowledge the efforts of the Minister for Justice and her success to date in bringing forward modernising legislation in the area of family law. In particular, I draw to her attention the urgency of cases whereby children, their mothers and some fathers have been deprived of access to one another for considerable periods, and sometimes for a lifetime, on the basis of evidence provided by so-called or self-appointed experts in family law situations. The issue remains to deal with the situation as and from now. We need to bring legislation before the House quickly and deal with the residue in respect of cases that have already been cleared because children are being condemned forever. We need to consider how to repeal or appeal such cases.

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Helen McEntee Minister for Justice Fine Gael

I know this is an issue about which the Deputy is very passionate, as am I. That is why I have brought forward the Family Courts Bill, which is being worked on at the moment. I have also introduced the family justice strategy. The Family Courts Bill will ensure that we have specific courts that deal only with family law, thereby ensuring we have the right structure, system and setting in place to support families and also to allow us to work through the enormous numbers of people who need to access the courts.

The family justice strategy has quite a number of recommendations, one of which calls for a review of expert reports and those who provide them to the courts. There are no restrictions in place at the moment, so we need to ensure we understand how these reports are provided and who provides them. We need guidance for that so I have asked for that to be done as a matter of urgency.

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