Fine Gael has called for a dedicated family court system to offer those involved in family disputes a lower-cost and less complex way to resolve their legal problems.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny was speaking at the Young Fine Gael National Conference in Maynooth, Co Kildare.
Mr Kenny said he favoured a constitutional amendment that would underpin such a stand-alone legal system.
"The current family court system is failing with talk of reform and promises for change having gone on far too long with nothing achieved," Mr Kenny said.
"Our system of family court is fragmented, developing piecemeal over many years in an unplanned haphazard way. A lack of judicial training and a lack of transparency in findings results in inconsistent decisions being delivered.
"Reform is long overdue and I believe there is a very strong case for treating family law issues in a different way to, say, civil law issues because of the emotional and financial consequences of family disputes," Mr Kenny said.
The new system, while it would use some of the existing Courts Service infrastructure, would take all family cases out of the current District, Circuit and High Courts and have them heard in dedicated family courts which have access to mediation services, family assessment service and properly trained and expert judges.
"Promised reform for family courts has been postponed for years and there is a genuine fear that this long-fingering will be permanent. It's clear that reform will only come if we underpin it with a constitutional amendment to provide for a distinct Family Courts system," the Fine Gael leader added.
"The question of when to hold a such a referendum is one that can be discussed over the next while. Ideally, I would like to look at this issue along with the upcoming children's referendum but the work on that issue is far more advanced and I don't want to unduly delay that work."
The Government was urged last month to establish a Family Court Division within the Circuit Court to help alleviate overcrowding and the variation in practices and procedures in family law cases.
That recommendation was contained in the report of the Family Law Reporting Pilot Project carried out by Dr Carol Coulter for the Courts Service.