asked the Minister for Justice if he is aware of the amount of time wasted in our family courts through archaic judicial procedures; and if he intends to review the situation and establish a proper system of family tribunals.
Written Answers. - Family Tribunals.
25.
Limerick East): The review of judicial procedures is one of the matters appropriate for consideration by the Committee on Court Practice and Procedure. Many of the recommendations of this committee have been implemented, and the most recent of their reports, their twentieth, gave rise to the Courts Act, 1981 which, among other things, conferred new or substantially increased jurisdiction in a broad range of family law matters on the district and circuit courts. As well as making litigation in these matters more locally accessible and cheaper, the aim of these changes is to simplify procedures — and thus save time — in two main ways: first, because procedures in the lower courts are less complex than High Court procedures; and secondly, by reorganising the jurisdictions of the courts so that several remedies, which might otherwise have required separate applications to different courts, may be taken together.
Apart from the continuing role played by the Committee on Court Practice and Procedure in this area, the Law Reform Commission have included the following in their first programme——
In examining the various aspects of family law the Commission will consider the question of the best type of judicial or court structure or structures appropriate to deal with the different matters which fall under the general heading of family law.
Any specific proposals will be announced in the normal way when I am in a position to announce them.