Child custody in Ireland

Married parents hold parental responsibility jointly. Joint custody is granted unless there is deep hostility. Where one parent has sole custody they handle day-to-day care, but the other guardian must still be consulted on matters that affect the child's welfare.

The mother is the general holder. The father becomes a guardian by agreement between the parents, by court appointment, or, under the 2015 law, if he has lived with the mother for twelve months in a row including at least three months after the birth.

The unmarried father, in one line: The mother has it; the father needs a step: a joint declaration, registration, agreement, or living with the mother at the birth.

Custody and access can be agreed between the parents or, failing agreement, set by a court. Divorce or separation does not affect both parents' guardianship, though a court can end an unmarried father's guardianship in highly exceptional circumstances. Joint custody is the default unless there is deep hostility, but it does not mean equal time.

The official fact sheet does not say when the child is heard. Irish courts take the child's views into account according to age and maturity.

The official fact sheet does not cover moving. In cross-border cases the 1996 Hague Convention and the EU regulation apply, and the High Court has exclusive jurisdiction over child abduction.

Ireland is a party to the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention, which lets a parent ask for a child wrongly taken to another country to be returned. It works only with countries that have accepted its accession, so check the other country on the treaty status table.

Within the EU, Regulation (EU) 2019/1111 (called Brussels IIb) decides which country's courts handle parental responsibility: in principle the courts of the country where the child habitually lives, and it speeds up the return of a child wrongly taken to another member state. Denmark does not take part in it.

• The rule about an unmarried father living with the mother for twelve months comes from the Irish 2015 law, not from the official fact sheet.

Ireland belongs to the Common law family. Family law grows out of the legal tradition, so it helps to know how the system works.

Read the Ireland legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in Ireland? →
Divorce rate and trend in Ireland →

• European e-Justice Portal: parental responsibility, child custody and contact rights in Ireland