DUBLIN DISTRICT COURT dealt with 5,000 family related applications last year.
Domestic violence, guardianship and maintenance are just some of the cases it hears.
Under the Domestic Violence Act there are two main kinds of protection available – a safety order and a barring order.
A protection order is a temporary safety order. It gives protection until the court decides on a safety or barring order and it doesn’t oblige the respondent to leave the family home.
The figures
In 2013, Dublin District Court dealt with 1,498 protection orders. It granted 1,371 of them – 467 of those orders were granted to a spouse while 184 were granted to a parent against a son or daughter.
The family court also witnessed 63 parents getting a barring order against a son or daughter.
A barring order requires the violent person to leave the family home and an interim barring order is a temporary barring order that’s intended to last until the barring order application is heard in court and a decision made.
Almost 200 interim barring orders were granted last year – 73 to a spouse, 38 to cohabiting or formally cohabiting people and 88 to a parent against a son or daughter.
The court also dealt with 2,344 safety orders but only 744 were granted – 245 were granted to a spouse, 201 to a cohabiting couple and 106 to a parent against a son or daughter.
A safety order stops the violent person from further violence or threats of violence but doesn’t oblige the person to leave the family home. However, if the person doesn’t live with you – it prohibits them from watching or being near your home.
Guardianship
There were 6,848 applications in relation to the guardianship of children in Dublin last year.
Of those 1,216 came from unmarried fathers, two from testamentary Guardians (where a will or wish of a dying person for a named person to be guardian of their child is assessed by the court) and 41 from other people.
There were 98 applications to remove a guardian, 180 applications regarding custody and access, 680 for custody only, 1,948 for access only, and 611 regarding guardianship and issues of passports etc.
Some 1,467 applications related to varying previous orders, 454 to try and enforce previous orders and 1,224 from grandparents seeking access.
Maintenance
Dublin District Court dealt with 2,095 new maintenance applications last year – the majority of them were from unmarried parents (1,533) with 562 made by married parents.
In relation to non payment of maintenance – 903 summonses were issued, 20 warrants were issued for arrest but nobody was committed to prison.
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