Court to take redress award into account

THE SUPREME Court has ruled that a family law court is entitled to take into account an award made by the Residential Institutions Redress Board to a mother of two when deciding the issue of maintenance to be paid for her children, who are in the custody of their father.

The Circuit Family Court had asked the Supreme Court to clarify issues related to how an award from the redress board may be treated in family law maintenance proceedings.

The case arose from an appeal by the father to the Circuit Family Court in 2007 concerning a District Court maintenance order.

The proceedings involved a man and woman who are the unmarried parents of two dependent children aged 12 and 14.

The father has custody of the two children who live with him and the mother was not paying maintenance for the children.

The father had sought for the mother to pay maintenance for the support of the children and, in the District Court proceedings, it emerged the mother was receiving some €200 a month arising from the settlement of her claim with the redress board.

The District Judge sought details of the settlement but the mother’s solicitors had said they could not divulge details because of confidentiality requirements imposed on each applicant to the redress board under the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002.

The Circuit Family Court then asked the Supreme Court to determine preliminary issues.

Delivering the court’s ruling yesterday, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, with whom Mr Justice Donal O’Donnell and Mr Justice Liam McKechnie agreed, ruled the father was entitled to details of the award made to the mother.

The clear policy of the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002 in preserving confidential information relating to applications before it would not be impaired by disclosure for the purposes of proceedings in the Circuit Family Court, the judge found.

He was also satisfied the award to the mother by the redress board which was being paid in instalments, was “income, property or other financial resources” within the meaning of the relevant provisions of the Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) Act.

In deciding whether to make a maintenance order, the court was required to have regard to that income as well as having regard to all the circumstances of the case, he found.

On that basis, the judge ruled that the Circuit Family Court was entitled to take into account the award from the redress board to the mother when deciding the issue of maintenance.