THE Irish government is set to launch a child maintenance calculator to help parents make payment arrangements for their children outside of the courts.
Child maintenance guidelines released this week confirmed a range of plans designed to improve the system for parents in Ireland.
The new initiative includes plans to create the calculator, as well as the establishment of new family courts across Ireland.
The courts will be held in selected locations on a phased basis before a full national roll-out begins.
“The creation of child maintenance guidelines is a first for Ireland and a significant step forward to improving fairness, consistency and transparency when parents are making child maintenance arrangements,” Ireland’s Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Jim O’Callaghan explained.
“A new online child maintenance calculator will be launched shortly to accompany the guidelines which will assist in making the guidelines more accessible for parents,” he added.
“I am confident the guidelines and the calculator will be helpful tools for parents who choose, and for whom it is possible, to make private arrangements for child maintenance directly between themselves, instead of through the court system.”
The minister said providing clear guidelines around child maintenance in Ireland is a “key objective” for his department in order to ensure that the nation’s family courts are “more user-friendly, less costly and place the needs of children at the centre of family law proceedings”.
“The implementation plan for the Family Courts Act will provide for a phased commencement of the Act, bringing the family courts into operation in specific locations over a series of stages before a full national roll-out,” Minister O’Callaghan said.
“My officials will commence work immediately with the Courts Service to establish the first family courts in January 2027.”