The Family Courts Act 2024: what changes, and when

The Family Courts Act 2024 is the largest change to how family law is heard in Ireland since the courts were set up, and almost none of it has started. This guide explains what the Act does, what the Department of Justice's implementation plan of 22 April 2026 says about when, what changes for a person applying for a domestic violence, maintenance, guardianship, custody or access order, and what does not change yet. It explains structure and procedure only. Family law is heard in camera under the present law and under the new Act, and nothing here comes from any case.

The one-line position at 15 October 2026: your application is made and heard exactly as the other guides in this chapter describe, and the changes page is where the first commencement orders will be logged.

What the Act does

The Act, signed on 13 November 2024, creates three new courts within the existing structure:

Each has its own Principal Judge and judges assigned to family law specifically, and the Act requires judges to have training or experience in family law. The aim is a specialist bench, rather than a judge who hears a drink-driving list in the morning and a custody dispute in the afternoon.

The Act also sets out guiding principles that bind the courts and the parties: the best interests of the child are the paramount consideration; the child's views are to be heard; proceedings are to be conducted with the least delay and cost; parties are to be encouraged to resolve matters by agreement, through mediation where appropriate; and the court is to be as informal as the case allows. Those principles are new in statute, though most describe what the District Court's family law days already attempt.

The implementation plan: three phases

The Department's plan of 22 April 2026 phases the new courts in over three years:

• Phase 1, January 2027. The Family District Court and Family Circuit Court begin in three locations, which the plan does not name. The Family High Court begins. The jurisdictions transferred are those the District Court already has: domestic violence, maintenance, guardianship, custody and access.
• Phase 2, January 2028. Further locations, and the transfer of further jurisdictions.
• Phase 3, from January 2029. National roll-out, and the District-level jurisdiction in divorce and judicial separation.

Each step needs a commencement order from the Minister and rules of court, and none has been made for the operational provisions at 15 October 2026. The three Phase 1 locations have not been announced. Until an order is made, the Act exists on the statute book and changes nothing in any courtroom.

What changes for an applicant, when it starts

Where the Family District Court is in operation, the practical differences are expected to be these:

The judge. A judge assigned to family law, sitting family cases most or all of the time, rather than a District Court judge taking a family law day in rotation. In the busiest venues that is close to the present practice; in smaller districts it is a change.

The venue and the list. Family cases listed in a family court sitting, separated from the criminal and civil lists, with dedicated staff. The Act does not of itself provide new buildings, and Phase 1 will sit in existing courthouses.

Case management. The Act expects the court to manage cases actively: to fix timetables, require the parties to say what is in dispute, and push agreed matters out of the hearing. Expect to be asked earlier what you are asking for and what you can agree.

Mediation and agreement. The principles require the court to encourage resolution by agreement and to consider mediation. The Legal Aid Board's free Family Mediation Service is already available; under the Act the court can expect it to have been tried where it is suitable, which it is not where there has been domestic violence.

The child's voice. The Act restates the duty to hear the child's views in proceedings that affect the child, in a manner suited to the child's age and maturity. How reports and experts will be funded under the new court is for the rules and the Department.

Divorce at District level. Once the relevant phase commences, divorce and judicial separation, now Circuit Court cases, can be brought in the Family District Court, with the Circuit Court keeping the more complex and higher-value cases. The sister site DivorceWise covers the Circuit Court procedure that applies until then.

What does not change

The substantive law is untouched. The Domestic Violence Act 2018 still sets the orders and their periods: a safety order for up to five years and a barring order for up to three in the District Court, a protection or interim barring order the same day. The Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) Act 1976 still sets the District Court's limits of €500 a week for a spouse, €150 a week per child and a €15,000 lump sum. The Guardianship of Infants Act 1964, as amended in 2015, still governs guardianship, custody and access and the best-interests test. The safety and barring orders guide, the maintenance guide and the custody and access guide describe the law that applies now and will apply in the new court.

The in camera rule continues: family proceedings are heard in private, and nothing identifying the parties may be published. The Act keeps the rule while allowing accredited reporters and researchers in on conditions, as the present law already does in part.

Civil legal aid continues through the Legal Aid Board on the same means test. The forms in use are the seven District Court family law forms introduced in June 2025 under S.I. No. 219/2025; the new court will have its own rules, but those are not made.

Existing orders stay in force. An order made by the District Court before the new court starts is not reopened by the change, and the Act provides for cases in progress to continue.

Hammond Lane and the Dublin venues

Dublin family law in the District Court sits at Dolphin House on Essex Street East, a building the Courts Service has long described as unsuitable. The planned replacement is the Family Law Court complex at Hammond Lane in Dublin 7, with 19 courtrooms, which was transferred to the National Development Finance Agency in August 2025; procurement was to finish during 2026 and completion is expected around 2028, a date to be verified against the Courts Service's own announcements. Until it opens, Dublin family applications stay at Dolphin House and the suburban venues; use find a court for the office.

The numbers the new court inherits

The Courts Service Annual Report 2025, published on 13 July 2026, gives the scale: 27,429 domestic violence applications in 2025 (up from 25,270 in 2024 and 20,501 in 2019), 5,987 maintenance applications and 11,200 applications under the 1964 Act. The average wait for a domestic violence hearing ranged from 11 weeks in Dublin to 36 in Naas. The specialist court is the structural answer to that caseload; whether it shortens the waits depends on the number of judges assigned, and the District Court had 70 judges against a ceiling of 77 at the time of writing.

Where this leaves you

Nothing changes for you in 2026. Apply, prepare and attend as the other guides in this chapter describe, and watch the changes page, where the commencement orders, the Phase 1 locations and the new rules of court will be logged as they are made. If your case is still in progress when the new court starts in your district, the Act carries it across.

Civil legal aid from the Legal Aid Board covers family applications now and under the new court, subject to its means test. The support page has the helplines and the services that go to court with people, which do not change either.