THE Bill setting out the terms for divorce will be introduced in the Dail next week and is expected to be law in the autumn. It paves the way for the first divorce applications early next year and the granting of decrees by the end of 1997.
The Family Law (Divorce) Bill, 1996, published yesterday, is almost identical in substance to the legislation announced before the divorce referendum last November.
The legislation received a broad welcome in Leinster House, but Opposition parties warned that the State must provide support systems, particularly with regard to the Family Courts, to deal with the anticipated rush of divorce applications.
Meanwhile, it is hoped that the Bill will pass through Second Stage without a vote. Committee Stage during which the Bill is amended will be held during the summer and the final stages and passage through the Seanad will take place in the autumn.
The first applications can be made three months after the Bill is signed into law and it is estimated that the first divorce settlements will be made by the end of 1997.
Government sources said that changes in the Bill from the legislation published before the referendum are of a minor technical nature. For the first time in the history of the State, a full draft Bill was published alongside the wording of a constitutional amendment last year.
One amendment to the Bill relates to pension adjustment orders another deals with the pursuit of spouses who have failed to honour maintenance order and the third reflects provisions of the Family Law Act.
Confirming that the Divorce Bill broadly meets Fianna Fail's expectations, the party spokesman on equality and law reform, Dr Michael Woods, said it would be examined by the parliamentary party next week. Fianna Fail, he said, will insist on the "action programme that must go hand in hand with the Bill" in terms of counselling, mediation and the expansion of the Family Court system.
The Fine Gael TD, Mr Alan Shatter, who is also a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Family, said the Bill would be seen by many thousands of people, whose marriages had in social reality ended years ago, as offering hope of a better future.
However, he warned that, in tandem with the Bill's enactment, major reform of the court structure was required to ensure it could cope with demand so that divorce could be obtained within a reasonable period. It currently takes the courts 18 months to determine separation cases which result from marital breakdown, he added.
"If the required court reforms are not put in place by the end of the year, couples may experience delays of two to three years in obtaining divorce decrees following the commencement of divorce proceedings," Mr Shatter said.
Calling for cross party unity on the provisions of the Bill, the Minister for Housing and Urban Renewal Ms Liz McManus, said it was important that the final legislation should not differ substantially from the legislation published before the November referendum.
Welcoming the Bill, the Progressive Democrats spokeswoman on equality and law reform, Ms Helen Keogh, said that once formal divorce was introduced in Ireland, "we must ensure that the reality of marriage breakdown is dealt with in a caring, professional and effective manner".