Shatter says they are being given a free pass on defiance of court orders
The Government and the courts are presently giving a free pass to many husbands and fathers ignoring District Court maintenance orders made for the support of wives and children, according to Fine Gael Children’s Spokesperson, Alan Shatter TD.
“Until the High Court judgement delivered in the McCann case last June 2009, a failure to pay maintenance after the making of a maintenance order could result in the maintenance debtor being sent to prison. This was a valuable option to facilitate the courts to force belligerent husbands and fathers to comply with their family obligations.
“In the McCann case a section of the Enforcement of Court Orders Act 1940 was held unconstitutional. In July 2009 the Government, in one day, required the Dáil to enact emergency legislation which purported to address the difficulties identified by the High Court to restore to the courts power to imprison recalcitrant maintenance debtors who have the means to meet their obligations.
“In July 2009 the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern TD emphasised the importance of ensuring ‘that an ultimate penalty exists in respect of unfulfilled family law maintenance orders’. Rushed legislation is always defective and the July 2009 Act has in practice failed to adequately address the difficulties that arise from the behaviour of maintenance defaulters and proved to be a disaster.
“Where a maintenance defaulter ignores a District Court summons issued following maintenance payments going into arrears and fails to attend at court, unmarried mothers and wives have had their court applications simply dismissed, with District Judges expressing the view that as a consequence of the McCann judgement they can take no action in the absence of the maintenance debtor attending before the court. In July 2009 the Dáil was told that the emergency legislation was an interim measure and more detailed and comprehensive legislation would be published by government. I am calling on the Government to immediately publish the legislation required to address the major difficulty confronting many wives and mothers as a consequence of maintenance orders previously obtained by them being presently regarded by the courts as unenforceable.”
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