A new report launched by the Minister for Justice has recommended new measures to ensure child maintenance orders can be enforced including collection by Revenue from the wages of a working parent, or deducted at source where social welfare is being paid through by An Post.
The Review of the Enforcement of Child Maintenance Orders also proposes new powers for the courts to freeze the assets of a parent who is failing to meet child maintenance payments, and to order sheriffs to enforce maintenance orders.
The changes would also allow deductions from the paying parent’s bank accounts, from government grants and subsidies, and the recovery of child maintenance arrears from tax refunds. Arrears could also be recovered from the paying parent’s estate.
Paying parents should pay costs associated with enforcement proceedings, the review recommended.
The Minister said the review proposes a number of recommendations, which are grouped under three approaches – the deterrence based approach, the compliance based approach and the consensus based approach.
The 26 recommendations for reform seek to span across these three approaches in order to generate maximum compliance with child maintenance orders, to ensure security and stability for children and to aid poverty prevention, she said.
“Non-payment of child maintenance is a common problem and the current enforcement options available are limited in scope and impact. This is clearly unacceptable, given the critical source of income which it can represent. That is why, working with Minister Humphreys, I am determined to take action in this area to ensure that every child is properly supported,” she said.
She said the recommendations were “designed to deliver maximum compliance with child maintenance orders” and that she intends “to commence the implementation process immediately”.
“That will involve establishing an interdepartmental group to develop a set of child maintenance guidelines and I will do that without delay. At a later point, I will seek government approval for other recommendations which will require legislative change to ensure I do everything I can to ensure security and stability for children. My colleague Minister Humphreys is also looking at what actions she can take and I welcome her intention to bring forward measures in the near future which will also help alleviate the risk of poverty for families in this situation,” she said.
Minister Heather Humphreys added that “Child Maintenance payments are essential in ensuring security and stability for children and protecting the welfare of families.”
The key recommendations of the review include:
In relation to compliance, the review proposed that the following be undertaken
Making the point that the review has its place in the Family Justice Strategy 2022-2025 – that of ‘supporting children’, Minister McEntee said that she was aware that many parents make private child maintenance arrangements, but that there will always be circumstances in which private arrangements either break down or are not possible.
“In these circumstances, the courts are tasked with safeguarding the financial welfare of children and it is my firm intention that this review, along with the changes being progressed through the Family Justice Strategy will lead to a family justice system that is effective, efficient and that provides real justice,” she said.
The review was led by the Department’s Civil Policy Unit, building on the previous work and report of the Child Maintenance Review Group,
Interviews were carried out with members of the Family Justice Implementation Group – including the Courts Service, the Legal Aid Board and members of the Judiciary, and additionally a number of District Court judges working in the area of family law were also interviewed.
The review also involved a comparative analysis of child maintenance enforcement in seven jurisdictions.