Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-21
============================================================

Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

I thank the Deputy for raising this. For the first time, the most recent family law strategy - which I published two years ago, I think - places a greater emphasis on children, on the impact separation can have on them and, most important, on how we provide supports to young people as they go through the court process with their parents or outside of it where there are experts who engage with them. I have heard a lot of stories, as I am sure the Deputy has, about where engagement with families has not been done appropriately. The family court strategy was always to be a living, breathing document and if changes or adjustments were needed as issues arose, they could be included. I will ask the issue the Deputy has raised to be brought directly to the Minister for justice, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, to see if something can be done within the family justice strategy. Perhaps something is already in train that he can engage with the Deputy on.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:58+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-21