I welcome the announcement by the Minister for Justice on the setting up of a pilot scheme to monitor and protect the rights of the child in family law situations. I urge that the relevant legislation, which is already before the Houses of the Oireachtas, will be expeditiously brought through the Houses. I point to the scandal of the abuse of children and mothers, who in some cases are being imprisoned in order to silence them about what is going on in the family law system at present. I ask the Minister to expedite the process through the House.

This is an area Deputy Durkan is passionate about. I can confirm that the Family Courts Bill is going through the Seanad at the moment. I hope to have it in the Dáil in the coming weeks and enacted very soon to make sure we have specific family courts. Separate to that, the €3 million in the budget will be vital to make sure, first, that we have advocates for children in our courts, that the courts are accessible to children, that the language used is accessible and that they have a clear voice; and, second, that we will now start to fund the voice of the child reports and welfare reports to make sure that in particular a person who has been financially abused has access to the reports and that there is oversight, which has not existed previously, on who they are commissioned by and how they are commissioned, to protect in particular those who are most vulnerable.

I thank the Minister.