Sir, We in MCS wish to draw attention to the huge expenditure being proposed by the Law Reform Commission for the widely acknowledged necessity to reform the family court system and to develop mediation services. While welcoming these initiatives we would suggest that if half of the proposed money were ploughed into the care of marriage and relationships people could access help before the problem became a crisis and before the State was confronted with the huge hidden costs of terminating relationships.
We applaud the commission for proposing such constructive and enlightened approaches for the "decent burial" of relationships but we are disappointed that nowhere in the Law Reform Commission Report was marriage counselling mentioned, not even among references to support services.
The comparisons between figures mentioned in the report and the Pounds 900,000 allocated by Government for 1996 to help source more than 50 voluntary organisations involved in marriage and relationship work are stark. Unless services such as ours, whose main focus is to keep alive stability within the community, are as well resourced as the services which regularise the termination of relationships the outcome for society in general, and family life in particular, are grim. No matter how efficient and caring courts and mediation are they are by definition central to the endings within families. A commitment to preventative measures such as education and counselling would signal a Government committed to hope. Yours, etc. Chairperson, Marriage Counselling Service Ltd., Grafton Street, Dublin 2.