The Civil Liability and Courts Bill contains proposals for changes in the "in camera" rule in family law cases which could allow the media access to family law courts for the first time. In this instance strict reporting restrictions are likely to apply.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, told The Irish Times that he may introduce an amendment that would lay down a code of practice for reporting family law cases.
The Bill amends 16 Acts where it is currently required that cases be heard "otherwise than in public". These relate to legitimacy proceedings, maintenance of spouses and children, divorce, separation and domestic violence.
Under the new Bill it will no longer be prohibited to prepare or publish a report of the proceedings, or publish the decision of the court, provided that the parties involved and their children cannot be identified.
An attempt two years ago by the Courts Service to modify the "in camera" rule had to be abandoned when the service received counsel opinion that existing legislation ruled out even a limited move. It had appointed a barrister to prepare reports of a general nature and publish statistics on decisions.
The "in camera" rule has been widely criticised by people with experience of family law litigation, as well as lawyers and members of the judiciary. Its reform was part of the Coalition's Programme for Government and the changes were expected to be part of this Bill.
It was believed that the changes would allow for the reintroduction of the Courts Service initiative, or something similar.
However, the proposed change goes further than expected. Section 31.2 of the Bill states: "Nothing contained in a relevant enactment [the Acts specified earlier] shall operate to prohibit (a) the preparation and publication of a report of proceedings to which the relevant enactment relates, or (b) the publication of the decision of the court in such proceedings, provided that the report or judgment does not contain any information which would enable the parties to the proceedings or any child to which the proceedings relate to be identified."
There is no reference here to the nomination of a person by the Courts Service to carry out such reporting. However, the nature of the reporting is likely to be restricted, either by judicial supervision or by an amendment laying down a code of conduct to be followed in making such reports.
This section of the Bill also allows documents to be produced, based on such proceedings, for use in various hearings and inquiries. It allows evidence given in family law proceedings to be forwarded to such inquiries, provided they are not held in public.
This will end the situation where it was impossible, for example, to bring a complaint to the Bar Council or the Law Society against a legal practitioner involved in a family law case because the "in camera" rule prohibited the reporting, to anyone, of the family law proceedings.
The publication of the Bill, which also contains proposals aimed at streamlining procedures in personal injuries cases and reducing insurance fraud, has been welcomed by the legal profession and the insurance industry.
Mr Michael Kemp, of the Irish Insurance Federation, said the Bill "meets all the requirements and, in tandem with the PIAB [Personal Injuries Assessment Board\], will help to reduce insurance costs".
Asked to quantify the reduction, he said the Bill met five or six of the recommendations in the Motor Insurance Advisory Board report, and could result in a reduction in insurance premiums of an estimated 8 to 10 per cent.