Joint custody of children after separation or divorce, with the children residing primarily with their mother and shared parenting arrangements, have emerged as the most likely outcomes in a new study of the family courts.
The majority of parents were able to agree on the arrangements, the study found.
The study was carried out for the Office of the Minister for Children by Dr Evelyn Mahon and Elena Moore. They attended 134 cases in three Circuit Courts over 15 weeks in 2007, noting issues relating to separation, divorce, maintenance, custody and access.
Eighty-seven of the cases concerned custody and residential care, and joint custody was awarded in 70 of them. Sole custody arose in 11 cases, normally where one parent posed a risk to the children, or where there had been paternal desertion of the family.
In the remaining cases the children were older teenagers and the courts were reluctant to make custody orders.
Joint custody was understood as joint legal custody, and in 63 of the 70 cases the children lived mainly with their mother. Only in six cases did they live mainly with their father.
The dominance of the mother stemmed from her being the primary carer pre-separation, and the spouse most likely to stay in the family home.
However, the also found that in practice in eight cases the parents decided to share the care on an almost 50:50 basis, and in a further four one parent had the children at weekends. Older children chose where to spend their time.
The most common description of access was "liberal" or "flexible", they found with no further details provided. In a minority of cases there was ongoing controversy about access, either because of issues like the re-location of the primary carer, or because of claims on unfitness on the part of one parent.
The study found that in such cases the dominant judgment of the court was to promote access initially on a limited basis, with proposals to increase it once established. The courts upheld and promoted the right of the child to have contact with both parents following separation and divorce, it found.
With regard to financial arrangements, the authors found that mothers were more likely than fathers to stay in the family home. This was the outcome in 33 of the 63 cases where the family home was an issue, while the father stayed in it in seven of the cases.
About half these mothers remained in the family home as part of a compensatory package (in lieu of maintenance). In the other cases the mother bought out the father's equity.
The payment of maintenance by one spouse to another was very rare and occurred in only two of the 87 cases analysed. Child maintenance was paid in 54 of the cases, with the amount varying widely.
The study found that many post-separation parents in full-time caring roles were on low incomes unless they were employed or had business income.
Parents who were employed or in financially egalitarian relationships before separation were, along with their children, less likely to be exposed to poverty post-separation or divorce, the report found.
The lack of spousal maintenance suggests that mothers were expected to earn their own keep by taking up employment, the study says.
The full report is on the website of the office of the Minister for Children.