Maintenance Orders Act, 1974
|
Enforcement by District Court. |
14.—(1) In this section “enforceable maintenance order” means— | |
(a) a maintenance order in respect of which an enforcement order has been made, or | ||
(b) in the case of a maintenance order to which section 11 relates, the maintenance order to the extent to which it is ordered to be enforced in accordance with that section. | ||
(2) (a) The District Court shall have jurisdiction to enforce an enforceable maintenance order and for that purpose the order shall, from the date on which the maintenance order was made, be deemed to be an order made by the District Court under section 1 of the Married Women (Maintenance in case of Desertion) Act, 1886, or section 3 of the Illegitimate Children (Affiliation Orders) Act, 1930 , as the case may be. | ||
(b) Paragraph (a) shall have effect notwithstanding that any amount payable under the enforceable maintenance order concerned exceeds the maximum amount which the District Court has jurisdiction to award under the said Acts. | ||
(3) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Acts referred to in subsection (2), as extended by that subsection, an enforceable maintenance order may not be varied or revoked by a court in the State. | ||
(4) Where an enforceable maintenance order is varied by a court in a reciprocating jurisdiction and a certified copy of the variation order is sent to the District Court, the enforceable maintenance order shall, from the date on which the variation order takes effect, be enforceable in the State as so varied. | ||
(5) Where an enforceable maintenance order is revoked by a court in a reciprocating jurisdiction and a certified copy of the revocation order is sent to the District Court, the enforceable maintenance order shall, from the date on which the revocation order takes effect, cease to be enforceable in the State except in relation to any arrears accrued at that date. | ||
(6) Any arrears under an enforceable maintenance order and any costs in respect of such order awarded against the maintenance debtor by a court in a reciprocating jurisdiction shall, for the purposes of subsection (2) and subject to section 4, be regarded as a sum payable by virtue of an order made under the enactments referred to in the said subsection (2), as extended by that subsection. | ||
(7) The jurisdiction vested in the District Court by this section shall be exercised by the justice of the District Court for the time being assigned to the district court district in which the maintenance debtor under the maintenance order concerned resides. | ||
(8) (a) Any sum payable by virtue of an enforceable maintenance order shall, notwithstanding anything to the contrary therein, be paid by the maintenance debtor to the district court clerk for the district court area in which the debtor for the time being resides for transmission to the maintenance creditor or, where a public authority has been authorised by the creditor to receive such sum, to that public authority. | ||
(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 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 that section (other than subsections (4) and (5)) to the applicant shall be construed as references to the district court clerk. | ||
(c) Nothing in this subsection shall affect the right of a maintenance creditor to proceed for the recovery of any sum payable to a district court clerk under paragraph (a). | ||
(9) A maintenance debtor under an enforceable maintenance order shall give notice to the district court clerk for the district court area in which he has been residing of any change of address and, if he fails without reasonable cause to do so, he shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds. | ||
(10) In this section, a reference to a district court clerk shall, where there are two or more district court clerks for the district court area concerned, be construed as a reference to any of those clerks. | ||
(11) For the purposes of this section, the Dublin Metropolitan District shall be deemed to be a district court area. |