10 days jail for dad accused of not paying enough maintenance

At the family law court in Ennis, Judge Patrick Durcan took the rare step of jailing a father over maintenance arrears after accusing the musician of ‘playing a game’.

Judge Durcan sentenced the man for 10 days to Limerick prison and it is the second time that Judge Durcan has imposed a jail term on the man for paying insufficient maintenance towards to the mother of their one child.

Last September, Judge Durcan sentenced the man to 14 days at Limerick prison.

However, the man escaped serving any time in jail on that occasion after coming up with the €500 en route to prison before being released from the custody of the Gardaí bringing him there.

However, this time around, the man will be only be released from his 10-day jail spell if he comes up with €9,390 in arrears.

The Irish Prison Service (IPS) confirmed yesterday that only three fathers were jailed for maintenance arrears last year; one in 2016 and this followed one in 2015 and five in 2014.

The 2017 statistics include a different father who was jailed in February of last year by Judge Durcan for three weeks - but he spent only one night in custody after paying over the €6,490 owed to the mother of their two children.

In court in relation to the latest case, solicitor for the man’s ex-partner, Shiofra Hassett applied to the court to have the man committed to jail on behalf of her client.

Ms Hassett recalled the last time that Judge Durcan imposed a jail term on the man that he was able to come with €500 on his way out of court “despite coming to court with no money”.

She said: “His arrears at this stage are over €10,000. He has always worked apart from a couple of months last year.”

Ms Hassett said that the man’s band “are able to secure a number of gigs around the country at any time”.

She said that in previous accommodation, the man was paying no rent “yet he has never paid the maintenance order to be paid as it should be paid.”

Ms Hassett said that it is over four years since a maintenance order was agreed.

She said: “This isn’t an inability to pay, it is simply a refusal to pay.”

In reply, the man, who was unrepresented in court, said that “some of what Ms Hassett said is true”.

He said: “But payments have been paid judge since August of €50 per week into an account from my own account.”

The man said that he was unable to work for a period for a time last year due to illness “and I have made payments of up to €500 to €600 from last November to January in cash lodgements plus €50 per week out of my account”.

The man said that on Tuesday of this week “I made a payment of €100 - €80 which is the order of what I must pay each week and €20 off the arrears.”

He said: “That is my intention to carry on that way and I am hoping to get a bank loan in April to get a chunk out of those arrears. That is the best I can offer right now.”

In reply, Ms Hassett said: “We have heard this many, many times over the last four years - we heard as recently as December that he was going to pay €70 a week - that didn’t transpire - then it was €50 a week.”

Asked by Judge Durcan how much he has paid over since the start of this year, the man replied “€100”.

Judge Durcan said “that is not enough and I am imposing a 10-day prison term. You have had repeat opportunities and warnings”.

The man said: “I am going to lose a lot of things if I am jailed for 10 days. I won’t be able to make any payments if I am jailed for 10 days.”

The man was then led away by a Garda in court to be taken to Limerick prison.