Separation/Divorce: why does Irish law impose waiting periods on our right to move on?

I'm separated and there's no hope of the marriage ever getting back. I can't move on quickly enough. It's as dead as a doornail. Nada. I met with a (very expensive) family lawyer today who said I had to wait for a year after I initiated the separation before I can apply for a judicial separation. Why? How can the TDs of Dáil Éireann tell us we don't know our own minds about such a massive personal issue until after such a period? I mean, this is nuts' legislation. Do they think we, poor misguided children that we evidently are, wake up and say 'Wouldn't it be great to get a legal separation for the craic?'

This is a toxic environment, as is the case in many homes across Ireland - and the laws of the Irish State are simply adding greatly to the toxicity by these restrictions. Apparently Fine Gael's Charlie Flanagan put this restriction into the 2019 act - yes, 2019, not 1819! And Flanagan was a comparative "liberal", given that he was amending the 1989 act which put a three-year ban on a separated persion having a right to seek a separation. That troglodyte Irish politician would seem to have been Fianna Fáil's Gerry Collins.

But that's not all! After the one-year wait is over, you can apply for a judicial separation and you'll be waiting "at least a year, probably two years and often much longer depending on how long the other side wants to put obstacles in your way". Waiting, in the same home in a huge number of cases. Imagine the children coming from the tension in that home, and all this nonsense about family law being "child-centred". Family law is the Wild West of the legal system. So, a year in a dead relationship that could have somebody on the waiting list but doesn't because they cannot apply for a judicial separation until a year is up. Why, it's almost as if we are being punished by our puritanical legislators for having the temerity to break the, eh, 'sanctity of marriage'.

There is a huge moral issue going on with family law in this State. Just like for decades, our legislators and establishment turned a blind eye to the inhumanity of the mother and child homes and industrial schools, today all of society does not want to hear what's going on in the family law courts. The delays in cases coming to trial are immoral, the Legal Aid income limits are still set at 2006 levels and thus only the very poorest can get Legal Aid while everybody else will be paying between €25,000 to €50,000 to get their case to court. The secrecy in judgements and secrecy in general is a defining feature of Irish family law. False allegations against men (overwhelmingly) is another defining feature - and because of the secrecy, we don't have statistics on this. The other defining feature is that, by far, the biggest losers in judgements are poorer and middle-class men, and in Dublin that includes an enormous number of educated, professional men who cannot afford two Dublin mortgages on their income so will be confined to flatland for decades (until their children reach 23). Yes, that will be a shock to many guys on €100,000 plus, but do the maths on paying two Dublin mortgages on that salary. You lose. Wealthy guys might lose millions and a house, but they have another, while a huge swathe of poorer/middle-class men are evicted to bedsits and alienation from their children, and much else for decades. And this whole world is given the bodhaire Uí Laoghaire by the entirety of the political class in the Oireachtas. Have you ever heard a politician highlight these issues, or journalists? Is there a single member of the Oireachtas who stands up and points out what's happening, and how the State is directly responsible?

Why are the legislators of this State going out of their way to create legislation, institutions, practices and a legal culture which greatly exacerbates stress, injustice, inequality and gender discrimination?

-

Dial Hard

The legacy of the Catholic church's influence on Irish lawmakers, basically.

is_that_so

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058251046/separation-divorce-why-does-irish-law-impose-waiting-periods-on-our-right-to-move-on

I have no answers to this, sorry but have you considered a submission to the Dail Committee on Justice or to the Minister herself? They can be surprisingly forthcoming at times. All you're likely to get here is sympathy from fellow travellers and maybe a little insight. The other route might stir somebody somewhere.

Charles Babbage

Marriage is an important legal institution with significant legal benefits. It should not be entered into or terminated in a trivial manner.

As for legal aid, why should others pay for people to sort out their rows?

Caranica

Don't get separated, go straight to divorce. You need to be living independently for 2 years. It used to be 4 until that 2019 bill you're raging about. Believe it or not much of the Western world has waiting periods of 1-2 years or longer.