Vol. 409 No. 5
12 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for Justice the reason no reference is made to the Judicial Separation and Family Law Reform Act, 1989, in paragraph 8 of the Statutory Instrument No. 341 of 1989 to exclude the payment of court fees in proceedings brought under the Act; and whether he intends to amend the Statutory Instrument so as to include the payment of fees in proceedings instituted pursuant to the Act.
When court fees were last revised in December 1989, the opportunity was taken to rationalise the overall fee structure. One result of that rationalisation was that some family law proceedings were exempted from fees under the Supreme Court and High Court (Fees) Order, 1989 (S.I. No. 341 of 1989). The Judicial Separation and Family Law Reform Act, 1989, had only just come into force at that time and it was decided to leave over consideration of the question of exemptions from fees for proceedings under that Act until there had been some experience of its operation.
The question of further exemptions will be considered in the context of the ongoing rationalisation of court fees generally.
