asked the Minister for Justice the number of maintenance orders made by the District Courts in each of the years 1965 to 1975 inclusive.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Maintenance Orders.
11.
I apologise to the Chair for not being here when the question was called.
The Minister is entitled to some accommodation if he is late but no such accommodation would be afforded a Member from this side of the House.
No accommodation has been conceded to anybody here today. I called the question immediately after Question No. 10.
I am not objecting but I am merely pointing out the discrepancy that exists.
Statistics in respect of maintenance proceedings are available for the Dublin metropolitan district only. The number of maintenance orders made in that district in each of the years 1965 to 1975, inclusive, was as follows: 1965—16, 1966—25, 1967—26, 1968—23, 1969—18, 1970— 18, 1971—33, 1972—72, 1973—92, 1974—106, 1975—112.
The figures relate to original orders only, and do not include any variation orders made subsequently.
The cost of specially compiling statistics for the rest of the country, which would involve a considerable amount of staff time in District Court offices, would be disproportionate to the value of the information sought.
(Dublin Central): Can the Minister give any reason for the astronomical increase to 112 in 1975 compared with 25 for another year?
I have no such information. The figure of 25 was for the year 1966, ten years ago. Perhaps the increase is an indication that people are more aware now of their rights in regard to maintenance orders. The Deputy will have noted that the figures for 1974-1975 were substantially higher than any figure for the preceding years. I suppose this is an indication that more people are seeking a remedy in this way.
While the cost of conducting a national survey for the purpose of ascertaining the information sought might be unreasonably high, would the Minister not accept that it is important for him to have this information available, if not immediately at least a little later, so that he would know the nature of the problem and, consequently, be enabled to take steps to deal with it.
The problem of which the Deputy speaks is hardly one for me to resolve. The question is one of maintenance and whether there has been a failure on the part of one spouse to support the other. The Deputy will be aware that legislation was enacted recently which will provide much alleviation of distress in this area. What must concern us is what happens from now on rather than what has been the position in the past ten years.
The compiling of the information sought would involve the District Court staff in an immense amount of work because simple statistics have not been kept in the various courts throughout the country. Therefore, the task would involve referring to minute books of all the courts for the past ten years. However, from now on statistics will be available in accordance with the Maintenance Orders Act, 1976. There are now separate rules and I intend to ensure that separate statistics will be available. But it would be disproportionate to the benefit that might be derived to embark on the task of searching the minute books of every District Court.
The Minister will recognise that the question was a reasonable one having regard to the difficulty that arises from the manner in which records have been kept and that it is a legitimate concern to express. However, now that the situation has been corrected the information will be available in the future.
That is not a question.
I have not denied that the concern was a legitimate one to express and I gave the information for the court area in respect of which information was available.