THE MOST RECENT figures from the Irish Court Service show that more people than ever are applying for divorces.
In 2014, there were 3,831 divorces before the courts, up from 3,609 in 2013. There were 3,482 divorces in 2012.
Overall, there has been a 10% increase in divorce over the last two years.
More women applied for divorce in 2014 than men.
In the Circuit Court, 2,130 divorce applications were made by the wife, while the husband filed in 1,678 of cases.
In 2014, there was 35 annulments granted in court – 33 in the Circuit Court and two in the High Court. This is a drop from 48 annulments in 2013.
Of the total number of annulment applications, 18 were made by the wife and 17 by the husband.
Legal limbo
There has been criticism in the past about the difficulties of getting a divorce in Ireland.
The former Justice Minister Alan Shatter said previously that the issue of divorce should be put to the people once again.
The 1996 vote allowed for the inclusion in the Constitution of a provision that requires couples to live apart for a minimum of four years before a marriage can be legally dissolved.
He said this time frame “locks estranged spouses into a legal limbo” and “results in thousands being required to involve themselves in two separate sets of court proceedings, one initially for separation and another later for divorce”.
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