Maintenance in the District Court: the limits and how the judge decides

People search for a child maintenance calculator because other countries have one. Ireland does not. The Family Law (Maintenance of Spouses and Children) Act 1976 tells the District Court to look at the needs of the person to be maintained and the means of the person who has to pay, and sets a ceiling on what the District Court can order. Inside that ceiling the judge decides case by case. This guide explains the limits, who can apply, how the application is made, what the hearing looks like, what the judge weighs, and what to do when the figures are above the District Court's limits. It explains procedure only: family law is heard in camera and nothing here comes from any case.

The limits

These are the District Court's jurisdiction, not a scale. A judge can order €20 a week for a child or €150, depending on the figures in front of them. The Circuit Court has no upper limit, and maintenance in a judicial separation or divorce is dealt with there as part of the wider case; the sister site DivorceWise covers that side.

In 2025 the District Court received 5,987 maintenance applications.

Who can apply

• Either parent of a child can apply against the other for child maintenance, whether or not they were ever married or lived together.
• A spouse or civil partner can apply for maintenance for themselves, where the other has failed to provide proper maintenance.
• A person who has care of a child can apply against a parent in some circumstances; the court office will tell you whether the form fits your situation.

Child maintenance runs until the child is 18, or 23 while the child is in full-time education, and without an age limit where the child has a disability that prevents them living independently.

A qualified cohabitant (someone who lived with a partner for five years, or two years with a child) can apply for maintenance under the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010, but that application is to the Circuit Court, not the District Court.

How the application is made

You apply at the District Court office for the district where either of you lives; in Dublin, maintenance applications are at the family law office in Dolphin House. Use find a court for the office. There is no fee for a maintenance application.

The office gives you the maintenance application form, one of the seven family law forms in use since June 2025, or you download it from the Courts Service forms page. You set out who you are, who the respondent is, the children, and what you are asking for. The office issues a summons with a hearing date, and it is served on the respondent by registered post or in person, as the office directs. Keep the proof of service.

Civil legal aid from the Legal Aid Board covers maintenance applications, with a means test and a contribution; the Board's eligibility page sets out the test. You can also represent yourself, and the judge is used to that in maintenance cases.

Before the hearing: the figures

The hearing is about numbers, so the preparation is the numbers. Both sides are expected to come with:

• Proof of income: payslips for the last three months, a P21 or Employment Detail Summary from Revenue, a social welfare statement, or accounts if self-employed.
• Outgoings: rent or mortgage, utilities, loans, childcare, insurance, travel to work.
• The children's costs: school, uniforms, childcare, food, clothes, activities, medical, and anything particular to a child.
• Bank statements for the last six months.

The court can require either party to file a statement of means, and in most districts the clerk asks for one. The maintenance worksheet puts both parties' net income and outgoings and the children's costs on one sheet with the limits shown. It is a preparation tool: it does not calculate an order, because nothing does.

If you are the respondent, bring the same documents. A respondent who arrives with no figures is asking the judge to take the applicant's figures as the only evidence.

The hearing

Maintenance is heard on a family law day, in camera. The clerk calls the list, and when your case is called you both come forward. The applicant gives sworn evidence first about the child's needs and the household's means; the respondent can ask questions. The respondent then gives evidence about their own means; the applicant can ask questions. The judge asks for the documents, and often asks direct questions of both sides about the figures.

Many cases settle at the door of the court: the clerk or the judge may ask whether the parties have spoken, and a figure agreed between you can be made a consent order with the same force as a contested one. The Legal Aid Board's Family Mediation Service is free and can produce an agreement before the date, which the court can then make into an order.

The judge gives the decision from the bench, usually the same day, with the amount, the frequency (weekly is the norm), the start date and how it is to be paid.

What the judge weighs

The 1976 Act gives the court a list of matters to consider rather than a formula: the income, earning capacity, property and other financial resources of each party; the financial and other responsibilities each has, including to other children or a new partner; the needs of the child, including education; and the conduct of the parties where it would be unjust to ignore it. In practice the questions are:

1. What does this child actually cost each week, and who is paying for what now?
2. What does each parent have coming in, net, from every source?
3. What does each parent have to pay out, and which of those outgoings are unavoidable?
4. What is left, and how should the child's costs be shared between the two incomes?
5. Is the figure within the District Court's limit? If not, the case belongs in the Circuit Court.

The parent the child lives with is taken to be contributing by caring for the child. A new partner's income is not the respondent's income, but it can reduce the respondent's own outgoings. Overtime and bonuses count. A parent who is on social welfare can still be ordered to pay a small sum. A parent who deliberately reduces their income can be assessed on what they could earn.

There is no rule that maintenance is a percentage of income, and the court does not apply the social welfare rates as a floor or a ceiling. The honest answer to "how much should a father pay" is that the judge works it out from the two sets of figures, which is why the figures matter more than anything said about them.

Paying through the court office

The court can direct that maintenance be paid through the District Court clerk rather than directly, which gives both sides a record of every payment and makes enforcement simpler. Ask for that if there is any history of missed payments. The court can also make an attachment of earnings order at the outset, so the employer deducts the sum from wages, where the respondent is employed and there is reason to think payments would not otherwise be made.

The order can be backdated to the date of the application, and arrears from that date can be ordered as a lump sum within the €15,000 limit.

Above the limits, or on separation

If the child's needs or the family's means mean that €150 a week per child is too low, or spousal maintenance above €500 a week is sought, the application goes to the Circuit Court. The same applies where maintenance is one part of a judicial separation or divorce. A District Court maintenance order continues in force until a Circuit Court order replaces it.

Where this leaves you

The hearing turns on figures, so the preparation is to get them straight. Use the maintenance worksheet to put both parties' net income, outgoings and the children's costs on one page, bring the payslips and statements that back each line, and expect the judge to ask direct questions about them. Once an order is made, the enforcement and variation guide explains what happens if it is not paid or circumstances change, and the custody and access guide covers the other application usually made alongside.

If you want a solicitor, the Legal Aid Board means-tests civil legal aid for maintenance applications and its Family Mediation Service is free. Where there is any history of violence or control in the relationship, the support page lists the services that can help with the hearing, and the domestic violence orders guide explains the orders the same court can make.