Opening the floodgates

In your article ‘More humane family courts planned’ (Jul 18) you say that “Families and children caught up in legal disputes will have a more humane, less costly, and more expert court system under proposed constitutional reforms”.

This indicates that the current system is not humane, is excessively costly and does not have the expertise required to deal with family law.

You quote the Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, as saying that “It’s about humanising the courts system and ensuring that the judges dealing with cases have the skills and training to do so”.

This indicates that the minister is aware that the current system is inhumane and that the judges do not have the skills and training to deal with the current cases.

Mr Shatter said the new system “should be more user-friendly and should make things less costly”, and so admits that the current system is difficult for people to use and unnecessarily expensive.

Mr Shatter said: “It’s important the judiciary have special skills, so when individuals go to family court they know there’s going to be a degree of consistency of approach.”

I believe these admissions by the Minister for Justice will open the floodgates for compensation from the State from all of the children and their families who were abused by the State for failing to have their affairs dealt with by people who were humane, did not over-charge or have the expertise and training to carry out their functions on behalf of the State and failed to act consistently.

I also believe that any attempt at reforming the archaic structures of the Family Law Courts will be a waste of time unless the secrecy of the “in camera” rule is amended to maintain privacy for families, but allow the work of the experts to be evaluated.

Cathal Garvey

Equality For Fathers In Ireland

Navan

Co Meath