Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) Act 1976
Transmission of payments through District Court clerk.
9.—(1) Where the Court makes a maintenance order, a variation order or an interim order under this Act, the Court shall—
(a) thereupon direct that payments under the order shall be made to the District Court clerk, unless the maintenance creditor requests it not to do so and the Court considers that it would be proper not to do so, and
(b) in a case in which the Court has not given a direction under paragraph (a) of this subsection, direct, at any time thereafter on the application of the maintenance creditor, that the payments aforesaid shall be made to the District Court clerk.
(2) Where payments to the District Court clerk under this section are in arrear, the District Court clerk shall, if the maintenance creditor so requests in writing, take such steps as he considers reasonable in the circumstances to recover the sums in arrear whether by proceeding in his own name for an attachment of earnings order or otherwise.
(3) Where a direction has been given under subsection (1) of this section, the Court, on the application of the maintenance debtor and having afforded the maintenance creditor an opportunity to oppose the application, may, if it is satisfied that, having regard to the record of the payments made to the District Court clerk and all the other circumstances, it would be proper to do so, discharge the direction.
(4) The District Court clerk shall transmit any payments made to him by virtue of this section to the maintenance creditor F41[or, where appropriate, to the competent authority].
(5) Nothing in this section shall affect any right of a person to take proceedings in his own name for the recovery of any sum payable, but not paid, to the District Court clerk by virtue of this section.
(6) References in this section, in relation to any proceedings, to the District Court clerk are references to such District Court clerk in such District Court district as may be determined from time to time by the Court concerned.
(7) Nothing in subsection (1) or (2) of this section shall affect paragraph (a) or (b) of section 14 (8) of the Maintenance Orders Act, 1974.
(8) Section 14 (8) of the Maintenance Orders Act, 1974, is hereby amended by the insertion in paragraph (b) after “application under” of “section 10 of the Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) Act, 1976, or” and by the substitution of “the said section 8” for “that section” and the said paragraph (b), as so amended, is set out in the Table to this section.
TABLE
(b) The district court clerk shall, if any sum payable by virtue of an enforceable maintenance order is not duly paid and if the maintenance creditor so requests in writing, make an application under section 10 of the Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) Act, 1976, or section 8 (which relates to the enforcement of certain maintenance orders) of the Enforcement of Court Orders Act, 1940, and for that purpose the references in the said section 8 (other than subsections (4) and (5)) to the applicant shall be construed as references to the district court clerk.
Annotations
Amendments:
F41
Inserted (29.11.1990) by Social Welfare Act 1989 (4/1989), s. 13(1)(d), S.I. No. 273 of 1990.
Modifications (not altering text):
C39
Application of section extended with modifications (27.02.1997) by Family Law (Divorce) Act 1996 (33/1996), s. 28, commenced as per s. 1(2).
Transmission of periodical payments through District Court clerk.
28.—Notwithstanding anything in this Act, section 9 of the Act of 1976 shall apply in relation to an order (“the relevant order”), being a maintenance pending suit order, a periodical payments order or a secured periodical payments order or any such order as aforesaid as affected by an order under section 22, with the modifications that—
(a) the reference in subsection (4) of the said section 9 to the maintenance creditor shall be construed as a reference to the person to whom payments under the relevant order concerned are required to be made,
(b) the other references in the said section 9 to the maintenance creditor shall be construed as references to the person on whose application the relevant order was made, and
(c) the reference in subsection (3) of the said section 9 to the maintenance debtor shall be construed as a reference to the person to whom payments under the relevant order are required by that order to be made,
and with any other necessary modifications.
C40
Application of section extended with modifications (1.08.1996) by Family Law Act 1995 (26/1995), s. 20, S.I. No. 46 of 1996.
Transmission of periodical payments through District Court clerk.
20.—Notwithstanding anything in this Act, section 9 of the Act of 1976 shall apply in relation to an order (“the relevant order”), being a maintenance pending suit order, a periodical payments order or a secured periodical payments order or any such order as aforesaid as affected by an order under section 18, with the modifications that—
(a) the reference in subsection (4) of the said section 9 to the maintenance creditor shall be construed as a reference to the person to whom payments under the relevant order concerned are required to be made,
(b) the other references in the said section 9 to the maintenance creditor shall be construed as references to the person on whose application the relevant order was made, and
(c) the reference in subsection (3) of the said section 9 to the maintenance debtor shall be construed as a reference to the person to whom payments under the relevant order are required by that order to be made,
and with any other necessary modifications.
C41
Application of section extended with modifications (3.05.1993) by Criminal Justice Act 1993 (6/1993), s. 7(2), commenced as per s. 14(2).
Payment of compensation to District Court clerks for transmission, and attachment of earnings orders.
7.—(1) Subject to subsection (2), payments under a compensation order or an order under section 6 (8) shall be made, for transmission to the injured party concerned, to such District Court clerk as may be determined from time to time by the court which made the order.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) and of securing compliance with compensation orders and orders under section 6(8)—
(a) subsections (2), (4), (5) and (6) of section 9 (which relates to the transmission of maintenance order payments through District Court clerks),
...
of the Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) Act, 1976, shall apply to those orders with the following modifications and any other necessary modifications, that is to say:
(i) in the said subsections (2) and (4)—
(I) the references to payments shall be construed as including payments under a compensation order or an order under section 6(8) to a District Court clerk pursuant to subsection (1), and
(II) the references to the maintenance creditor shall be construed as references to the injured party,
...
C42
Application of section extended with modifications (19.10.1989) by Judicial Separation and Family Law Reform Act 1989 (6/1989), s. 24, commenced as per s. 46(2).
Transmission of periodical payments through District Court clerk.
24.—Notwithstanding anything in this Act, the provisions of section 9 of the Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) Act, 1976, shall apply in relation to an order for maintenance pending suit, to a periodical payments order or a secured periodical payments order, subject to the modifications that the reference in subsection (4) of the said section 9 to the maintenance creditor shall be construed as a reference to the person to whom payments under the order would be made and the other references in the said section 9 to the maintenance creditor shall be construed as references to the person on whose application the periodical payments order was made.
Editorial Notes:
E15
Maintenance Orders Act 1974 ( 16/1974) referred to in subss. (7) and (8) was repealed (18.06.2011) by European Communities (Maintenance) Regulations 2011 (S.I. No. 274 of 2011), reg. 25.