THE GOVERNMENT HAS been urged to establish a dedicated child maintenance service which would remove the burden from lone parents in cases of non-payment. 

Support services for lone parents have pointed out that the only option available now if a liable parent refuses to pay maintenance is to pursue them through the courts.

They have said this process is adversarial, costly and time-consuming, but if parents want to receive certain State supports they have to show that they sought maintenance payments in the courts. 

A review group comprised of legal, policy and academic professionals as well as officials from the department of Social Protection and Justice submitted a review of the child maintenance system to Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys in April.

The minister has yet to issue a response, but one of the three areas the group was tasked with considering was the establishment of a child maintenance service in Ireland.

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Social Protection Claire Kerrane has been urging the government such a service to support lone parents and their children. A similar service is already in place in Northern Ireland.

Speaking to The Journal, she said if was “disappointing” that the report submitted in April was not published before the Dáil recess.

“It’s been an issue for a long time and it causes great difficulty for lone parents,” she said.

The establishment of a child maintenance service is one of a number of recommendations made in a 2021 position paper by the National One Parent Family Alliance, which is made up of nine national organisations including Barnardos and the Children’s Rights Alliance.

The report noted that in Ireland child maintenance is seen largely as a personal, parental obligation and therefore a matter of private family law.

“There is no state agency with responsibility for child maintenance payments and pursuit of maintenance is left up to the claiming parent on behalf of their child,” it said.

“Where a maintenance agreement cannot be reached by parents privately, they are forced to seek maintenance through an adversarial, costly and time-consuming court system.”

A survey by One Family in 2016 on shared parenting found that the most common financial problem identified by respondents was non-existent or insufficient child maintenance payments.

The National One Parent Family Alliance has said processes in the courts are difficult to enforce, precipitate protracted and often hostile parental negotiation, contribute to poverty and have little regard to the safety of those who have been subjected to domestic abuse, violence, coercion and financial abuse. 

“From our work with families, we are aware that there is a significant rate of non-compliance with child maintenance orders significant delays in the courts system and a high cost involved in engaging a litigious route,” it said.

The organisation also pointed out that courts cannot issue summons for maintenance unless the custodial parent can provide an address for the non-custodial parent and this is not always known.

Although a bench warrant can be issued of the liable parent fails to appear at proceedings, the organisation said this is rarely acted upon as there is no prosecuting garda involved. 

It recommended the establishment of a statutory maintenance agency  to ensure State is responsible for assessment and enforcement. Where a parent cannot or does not pay, it said the State should ensure the maintenance is paid and recoup the funds later from the liable parent. 

The Northern Ireland service collects unpaid maintenance in a number of ways, including deducting money owned from earnings or a bank account.

The service can also take the liable parent to court to take action to recover unpaid maintenance, including an order that would prevent the sale of a property owned by the parent, or ultimately the forced sale of the property. If these methods fail the service can apply to have the parent disqualified from driving or to send them to prison.

Kerrane said the current system in Ireland is “messy” because the court system is not “the right environment” for these matters as there is a lack of consistency to the approach taken.

“It all depends on the judge of the day and on what they decide, and even then once its court-ordered it doesn’t guarantee payment,” she said. “It’s a very messy system and an unfair system at the moment.”

She said she is hopeful that the department will publish the report and announce its plans ahead of the September budget announcement so that measures to address the issue can be included in the government’s financial plans for next year.

Kerrane said the estimated cost of initial set-up and first year of operation for such a service is €2.5 million.

In response to a query from The Journal, Minister Humphreys’s department said she was giving the report “the careful consideration that such an important and complex issue deserves”. 

“Given that the report relates to a broad range of issues that are beyond the scope of the social welfare system, the minister is also consulting her government colleagues,” the department said. 

“Once the report has been fully considered, the Minister intends to bring it to Government, at which time a decision regarding the publication date will be made.”