Jim O'Callaghan

The development of guidelines to help inform parents on how to make private child maintenance arrangements was one of the recommendations of a Department of Justice review into how child maintenance orders are enforced.

The online survey, which will run until 2 May 2025, is seeking views from legal professionals as well as parents, interested members of the public, those working with families, and academics and researchers.

Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan said: “Child maintenance payments represent a critical source of stability and security for children across the country.

“All parents, whether they are married, separated, living together, or have never lived together, have an obligation to support their children based on what they can afford.

“Our aim is to design guidelines that are transparent and which parents will find useful and fair. The survey which I am launching is open to anyone living in Ireland and I would encourage all interested parties to complete it and have their say on the key aspects of the guidelines.

“I am particularly keen to hear from parents who have or are seeking child maintenance arrangements, members of the public with an interest in child maintenance, legal professionals, those working with families and academics and researchers with an interest in this area.”

The Department of Justice’s review of the enforcement of child maintenance orders was published in January 2024 and formed part of the government’s family justice strategy.

Mr O’Callaghan continued: “I am committed to reforming the family justice system through the ongoing implementation of the family justice strategy, which was developed to create a more user-friendly family justice system.

“We know that, while many countries have a set of child maintenance guidelines in place to help parents make private agreements, there are currently no guidelines available to parents in Ireland to help them to come to such agreements on how much child maintenance should be paid.

“The aim of this work is to provide parents with voluntary guidelines and an easy-to-use calculator to help determine fair child maintenance payments, with the best interests of their children being the primary focus.”