The report draws attention to the 1995 report of the Law Reform Commission on family courts, which said: "The family justice system is now in crisis."
It described long family law lists, delays, brief hearings, inadequate facilities and over- hasty settlements, and the development of "an unhealthy two-tier system" of District Court remedies for the poor and Circuit Court ones for their wealthier neighbours.
This report says courts dealing with family law have wide and far-reaching decisions to make concerning children, family income and assets, the fate of the family home, and other matters. They may involve very complex financial and psychological matters.
Although, through the appointment of a number of Circuit Court judges, the backlog and delays have largely been solved, many of the other problems remain, particularly the lack of adequate support systems for the family courts.
The report explores three options: the setting-up of a system of regional family courts, as recommended by the Law Reform Commission in 1995; a separate, dedicated family court structure, similar to the Australian system, with its own specially appointed judges and considerable support services, including counselling; improvement of the current system by creating a family law division, and the provision of greater resources for family law.
It recommends the first and third options, suggesting, in the short term, the setting-up of family law divisions in the District, Circuit and High Courts. In the longer term, there should be progress towards regional family courts.
The report also recommends the expansion of the Court Probation and Welfare Service to include a family law section. This has been a bone of contention between the Probation and Welfare service and the Department of Justice, with the ad-hoc services it provided being withdrawn due to lack of resources and staff.
In relation to judges, it recommends they should be allocated to the family courts on the basis of experience, legal knowledge, inclination and temperament, but that they should not be assigned permanently to family law.
The complex issue of the in-camera rule in family law cases, which means they usually are not reported unless they are in the High Court, where there is a written judgment, has been addressed by proposing a pilot scheme for reporting some cases with the consent of the parties. The scheme would involve the appointment of a solicitor or barrister to record and report on family law decisions and assemble family court statistics for publication on a regular basis.