MR Alan Shatter (FG, Dublin South) expressed concern that the recently published rule's of the Circuit Court would add to the complexity of divorce proceedings and the legal costs of those involved.

He believed that the elaborate documentation required to deal with background financial information would impose a burden on couples who did not want to know each other's situation. In cases where divorces were not contested, and where there was no doubt that a couple had been living apart for many years, and where neither wished to raise financial issues of contention, there should be a simpler documentary format for processing divorce proceedings.

The Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, said she would raise the matter with the rules body.