Family Mediation Ireland

There is a substantial amount of confusion in the media in terms of the difference between custody, guardianship and access. The party who has custody has day to day care and control of the children. It is not uncommon for the courts to make joint custody orders in respect of children subsequent to a separation or divorce. Generally these orders will be subject to a proviso that the children primarily reside was one of the parties. The majority of work conducted by family mediation service throughout Ireland and the U.K. relates to making arrangements for children.

Joint custody does not mean that the parties will enjoy access to the children 50% of the time. Practical day-to-day living arrangements generally do not facilitate a 50-50 split in terms of time with the children. Many couples have to work around this harsh reality after a separation. Guardianship by contrast is the right of a parent to be involved in all the major decisions affecting the welfare and upbringing of a child to include, education, health, religious, moral and monetary concerns.

An unmarried mother will automatically be the  guardian of her children when they are born. By contrast an unmarried father must apply to the District Court to be appointed guardian of his children. Parents can also be appointed guardians by deed. However, our experience has shown that for documentation and state certification purposes an order of either the District Court or Circuit Court is preferable. Custody, guardianship and access arrangements are best resolved through family mediation. No other process process offers a quicker or more cost-effective solution to resolving access, guardianship and custody arrangements than mediation.

Access arrangements are best resolved by parties outside of a contentious court environment. Acrimonious court proceedings in respect of custody and access can not only damage the parties involved themselves but also their children whereby the level of trust and communication between the parties is erroded. At a different part of this website  examples have been provided of how five different hypothetical couples worked access arrangements around their daily lives. At Family Mediation Ireland we are committed to helping couples resolve issues relating to the welfare of their children.

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