A NEW CHILD maintenance calculator to help parents in coming to payment arrangements has been launched by the government this week. 

Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said the innovative online child maintenance calculator is aimed to be a helpful tool for parents who choose to make private arrangements for child maintenance between themselves, rather than through the court system.

The launch of the calculator follows on from the publication last month of Ireland’s first set of child maintenance guidelines. 

O’Callaghan said the calculator is intended to help make the guidelines more accessible for parents.

“I am working to progress significant family justice reforms,” said the minister this week, stating the the new calculator and guidelines are central to improving fairness, consistency and transparency when parents are making child maintenance arrangements.

Help parents work out payment amounts

The minister said he is confident the guidelines and the calculator will assist parents in determining fair child maintenance payments, reducing conflict by making the calculation of child maintenance more objective.

The calculator is available online and takes four simple steps to obtain an estimated child maintenance amount. 

A 2022 survey carried out by the charity SPARK (Single Parents Acting for the Rights of Kids) found that just 35% of parents reported receiving maintenance without arrears, while 36% of parents said they were owed significant maintenance arrears but have given up looking for it.

In 2024, the government announced “landmark reforms” to the state’s child maintenance system, which meant a single parent would no longer be required to go to court to seek child maintenance and payments would be excluded from the social welfare means test.

The Review of the Enforcement of Child Maintenance Orders published in the same year put forward 26 recommendations which included calls for information sharing agreement established between Revenue, the Department of Social Protection and the Courts Service.

The report set out how child maintenance should also be able to be deducted from social welfare payments. It also set out that suspended sentences for non-payment of child maintenance should be explored. 

A recommendation is also contained in the report that could see money and assets frozen where there is non-payment, with child support being taken from a person’s bank account in some cases.