Oireachtas committee hears calls for statutory child maintenance agency to ensure payments

An Oireachtas committee has heard calls for the establishment of a statutory child maintenance agency in a bid to ensure payment of maintenance for children whose parents are estranged.

Non-compliance with maintenance, custody and access orders in family law cases is a persistent problem, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice was told on Tuesday.

One woman who battled in the courts for 24 years before her former partner complied with maintenance orders described her experience as financial abuse, the committee was told by Damien Peelo, the chief executive of Treoir, which promotes the rights of unmarred parents and their children.

The committee was urged on Tuesday by Treoir and other stakeholders working with estranged parents and/or children – Spark Campaign Ireland, One Family, Barnardos and the Law Society - to support the introduction of a range of measures to better protect children and parents.

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The measures include the establishment of a statutory child maintenance agency and more resources for agencies working therapeutically with children and estranged parents in a bid to reach agreement rather than resort to the adversarial court system.

The committee convened to engage with stakeholders on the topic of enforcement of court orders relating to child maintenance, access and custody.

Louise Bayliss, of Spark Campaign Ireland, which advocates for lone parents, said many of its members experience ongoing abuse through non-compliance with courts order for child maintenance payments and access. In its most recent research last April, 36 per cent of respondents said they were owed an average €8,000 in arrears of maintenance but had given up pursuing it.

Maintenance should be dealt with by a statutory agency outside the courts and should be separated from access issues, she said.

Karen Kiernan, the chief executive of One Family, said child poverty rates are going up nationally and there is repeated and inappropriate use of courts, all of which cost the State. The agency can see from its services the conflict this causes between parents and the hardship for children, she said.

One Family’s recommendations included that child maintenance should be treated as a no tax, no means tested payment and taken out of the family courts.

Stephanie Whyte from Barnardos said one third of children currently accessing its services are involved in current parental separation and some parental relationships were “toxic.

The court system can sometimes get the balance wrong between the rights of parents and the best interests of children and sufficient mechanisms are needed to ensure children’s voices are heard, she said. More resources are necessary to support parents and children post separation and this might reduce the number of families who use the courts as a way of managing conflict, she added.

Recommendations from the Law Society, outlined by its director general Mark Garrett, included measures to alleviate the financial burden on lone parents when seeking maintenance, set penalties for breach of orders and the establishment of a statutory child maintenance agency.

Dr Geoffrey Shannon SC, member of the Law Society’s Family and Child Law Committee, said it is “of paramount importance” that the voices of children are heard, directly and indirectly, in discussions affecting them. Ten years on from the children’s rights referendum “we have still not succeeded in hearing children”, he said.

Before closing the meeting, committee chair Fianna Fáil TD James Lawless remarked that a common thread in several committee hearings was calls for more judges, courtrooms and staff.

The committee will issue its report on a later date.