Debate contribution: No-fault Divorce

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 20 May 2024.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

20 May 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

No-fault Divorce

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4491286

Read the official Assembly record

Text

The SDLP will support the motion, and I welcome the fact that it has been tabled. I look forward hopefully, in the Minister's summing up, to hearing about specific intent to legislate on no-fault divorce during this mandate. The motion is right to acknowledge that divorce is a difficult, often traumatic, process for those who have to go through it. As Cheryl Brownlee said, no one undertakes or enters into a marriage expecting or hoping that that marriage will end, but the reality of life and human relationships is that relationships do end. It is in the interests of those people and, particularly, in the interests of any children who are involved and, indeed, their wider families and friends that, when those relationships come to an end and end in divorce, that process is as amicable and, frankly, as smooth as possible. It is clear that our divorce law is a product of an earlier time, one with different moral and legal expectations. It is only right that we now update the legal framework to make the process much smoother. There are particular circumstances that need to be borne in mind and which argue for the introduction of no-fault divorce. One is —.

I appreciate the extra minute. The Member has much more legal training than me. I think that the answer to the question is that no other contract exists in law that is like a marriage. No other contract in law is the same: a contract between parties that involves human emotion and, often, children in the way that a marriage does. To compare it to a deed to a house or anything else is, I am afraid, to completely miss the point. We are talking about human beings and their lives and children, so treating it like another matter to be litigated is exactly the problem in many cases. There are situations in which, for example, one party — often but not always the woman — in the relationship is in an abusive situation. I am sure that most of us, as elected representatives, have dealt with constituents in the extraordinarily difficult — I put it far too mildly — life-altering and traumatic situation of being in an abusive relationship. In many cases, those people do not have the option of waiting for two years to have a separation period; nor, often, have they the financial or emotional wherewithal to find somewhere else to live, often with children alongside them. When we legislate for people here, we are not simply legislating for dry, hypothetical or legally perfect situations; we are legislating for ordinary human beings. Everything at the front of our minds should be about making the lives of our citizens and constituents more straightforward and better and about reducing damage and difficulty for them when we can. No-fault divorce will, frankly, make divorce smoother, simpler and cheaper for many people in the situation — a situation that is often sad and sometimes very sad — where a relationship has come to an end. It will make it as amicable as possible, which is in everyone's interests. It is in the interests of the couple who are sadly divorcing, and it is certainly in the interests of their children. Frankly, it is in the interests of society and of the legal system. We heard from the Justice Minister about the extreme burdens on the legal system and delays in the judicial system. Anything that we can do to ease that burden is an added benefit of introducing no-fault divorce. I welcome the motion. It is, in 2024, overdue. It would be a positive sign that we in this place have, at a devolved level, got our act together with moving forward practically with social reforms and that we have not become tangled up in the weeds of those reforms. The Opposition, including me, welcome and support the motion. We hope to hear that the Minister will be able to legislate on the matter quickly.

667 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:22 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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