Court Orders
Seanad Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South

Family law is the aspect of law that affects the majority of people in the country. Fortunately, most people do not end up before the courts. If, unfortunately, you find yourself in a family dispute and there are children involved, you probably do need to go before the courts. It is important that we, as legislators, ensure that the system for family law in place is fair, efficient and helpful to people who come before the family courts. Our sole objective should be trying to facilitate the individuals before the courts. It is not about lawyers or judges; it about the litigants.
The calculator for the maintenance guidelines will be coming in shortly. I urge Senators to have a look at the maintenance guidelines that were published. A huge amount of work went into them. The calculator sets out a very mathematical and logical basis for people to calculate how much maintenance should be paid. It is based on the financial capacity of the parents and the amount of time they devote to the children. Other resources are also taken into account. It is a very useful tool. I urge all Senators to have a look at it.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:31+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21