The introduction of divorce yesterday, is a milestone in Ireland's social development and the culmination of a long campaign to modernise our social legislation. The right to divorce joins the rights to contraception, homosexual expression and freedom to travel for abortion, in a liberal agenda of change that has taken a generation to complete. An estimated 90,000 citizens of this State, who have been separated for more than four years, are now eligible for divorce proceedings.
They are likely to find a system that may take longer and be more costly than they expected. They will also encounter a family law system that is altogether too opaque because of the paucity of publicly available information on the judgments it reaches. These shortcomings characterise the wider legal system of which the divorce courts will now form a part. They have been clearly and scathingly identified and analysed in recent reports from the Law Reform Commission and the Working Group on a Courts Commission. Now that the divorce legislation is finally implemented, the opportunity should be taken to reform and improve the administration of the law, so as to improve the quality of justice available.
Among the characteristic features of the Irish legal system which should come under public scrutiny, is whether the adversarial method is best suited to divorce proceedings. Alternative methods of mediation and counselling may be much more appropriate before cases come to court, as well as when they do. Unfortunately the infrastructure of mediation is both underdeveloped and under regulated to cope with the potential demand for these services. This may well force people back on more expensive legal procedures. It is also extraordinary that the great majority of judgments in the family law system, which will now include the divorce courts, are unwritten. This means that the information necessary for advice and research into these social trends is simply not available.
The introduction of divorce is a milestone in the creation of a more pluralist, tolerant and caring society in this State. It is a tribute to the many men and women who struggled over the years to remove the constitutional prohibition on divorce. It is also a tribute to the political parties, which eventually co operated to put the legislation in place, after it was barely carried in the referendum on November 23rd, 1995. It is worth reflecting, now that divorce is legal, on what has changed in the Irish political system as a result of the formal completion of such a large part of the liberal agenda.
There is a general consensus between the main parties on such social legislation which was so politically divisive in the last 25 years. A similar consensus applies to much of this State's economic policies, and to basic features of its international and European positions. Is this the end of a distinct period in Irish history? Whatever the answer to that question, it is clear that sheer competence and performance, rather than polarised policies, loom much larger as issues in this election year.