The principal statute governing maintenance is The Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) Act 1976. This Act deals with maintenance orders for the benefit of spouses and dependent children. This act seeks to make financial need rather than matrimonial misdeed the central issue in an application for maintenance. A dependent child is defined to mean a child who "is under the age of 18 years or if he/she has attained that age: is receiving full time education or instruction at any university, college, school or other educational establishment and is under the age of 18; or is suffering from mental or physical disability to such an extent that it is not reasonable possible for him/her to maintain himself/herself fully.

Other payments can also be ordered in respect of non marital children for example the Court can order payments for birth and funeral expenses in respect of the dependent child.

A person on whose application a maintenance order is made is called a maintenance creditor while the person ordered to pay the maintenance is the maintenance debtor.

The Act also specifically provides for children born outside marriage and the Act allows one parent to apply for maintenance against the other in respect of that dependent child.

Assessment Criteria
The Court will decide what maintenance is proper in the circumstances. The Court in deciding whether to make a maintenance order and the amount to be awarded must have regard to all the circumstances of the case and in particular:

• the income, earning capacity (if any), property and other financial resources of the spouses and of any dependent children of the family, including income or benefits to which either spouse or any such children are entitled by or under statute, and
• the financial and other responsibilities of the spouses towards each other and towards any dependent children of the family
• the needs of any such dependent children, including the need for care and attention.
  
  In essence the assessment of maintenance is a mix between the needs of the maintenance creditor and the resources of the maintenance debtor.

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Lump Sum Payments
The Family Law Act 1995 provides for the making of lump sum payments. Such orders can be made instead of an order for periodical payments or in addition to an order for periodical payments. The maximum amount that can be ordered by the District Court is €20,000. The Act provides that in calculating this lump sum the Court should award the amount that it considers appropriate having regard to the amount of periodical payments which would have been made and the periods during which and the times at which they would have been made, if no lump sum payment had been ordered. Where the lump sum is in addition to periodical payments the Court must determine what sum is appropriate having regard to the periodical payments order made by it.

There is a lack of guidance from the Acts or case law as to when or why a lump sum will be paid.

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Jurisdiction & Variation
The District Court can make orders of up to €500 per week per spouse and of up to €150 per week per child. The Circuit Court can also deal with maintenance and has unlimited jurisdiction.

A periodical maintenance payment order can be discharged or varied by the Court at any time on the application of either party, if new circumstances exist or if circumstances have changed since the order was made so as to warrant an increase or decrease in the level of maintenance. An increase or a decrease in the maintenance debtors earnings can be a sufficient change in circumstances to justify the variation of a previous order.

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Procedure for payment
Maintenance payments may be paid through the District Court office rather than to the maintenance creditor directly. The main advantage in having the payments made this way is that there will be a proper record of all payments and the District Court Clerk will be in a position to give evidence in relation to arrears. Where there is a default in payment, the Clerk can take reasonable steps to recover payments.

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Enforcement Machinery
a.. Attachment of earnings order
If the maintenance debtor is an employee then the maintenance creditor may obtain an attachment of earnings order. This is an order directing the maintenance debtor's employers to deduct a specified sum from the debtor's wages.

a.. Enforcement of Court Orders Act, 1940
If a maintenance debtor defaults in the maintenance payments this Act renders him liable to imprisonment for a maximum of three months or the Court can also order the distress of goods which will then be sold. In order to proceed through this channel either the maintenance creditor or the District Court Clerk (where maintenance payments are paid through the District Court office) must swear information before the District Court Judge. the information will set out the amount of arrears owing. The District Court Judge will then either issue a summons against the maintenance debtor or issue a warrant for the maintenance debtors arrest.

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