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THE LAW SOCIETY of Ireland has called for a yes vote in the upcoming referendum to remove the minimum living apart period for spouses seeking a divorce from the Constitution.
If passed on 24 May, the government would introduce primary legislation on the time period before you can get a divorce, rather than having it in the Constitution.
Under the current system, married couples need to have lived apart for at least four years during the previous five years. The new proposals would see that reduced to just two years, with the Oireachtas providing the legislation for this.
The other aspect of the Constitution that will change if the referendum is passed relates to the recognition of foreign divorces.
The Law Society is set to make its opinion known at the launch of its report ‘Divorce in Ireland: The Case for Reform’ later today – which looks at divorce in Ireland over the last two decades.
The report details a number of “unsatisfactory” aspects of the law in this area, including the “considerable” discretion given to judges dealing with cases.
“Such discretion allows different judges to apply the long list of factors in section 20 of the Divorce Act in very different ways, thereby producing very different results in often similar cases,” the report states.
The development of clear and applicable guidelines would assist the judiciary in making decisions, whether these be introduced by way of legislation or Supreme Court judgment.
Some of the other recommendations made in the report include:
Duplication of legal expenses
According to the Central Statistics Office, the number of divorced people in Ireland has increased from 35,100 in 2002 to 103,895 in 2016.
The principal author of the report, Dr Geoffrey Shannon, said that while each divorce case is unique, he warned that the current requirement to live apart for a period of four years prior to the institution of divorce proceedings may now be considered too long.
“It may result in a duplication of legal expenses and protracted proceedings, where parties are involved in both judicial separation and divorce proceedings over time.
The rise in the number of divorced persons also reflects an increasing acceptance of divorce within Irish society as a remedy to an irretrievably broken-down marriage.
“The questions facing Ireland now relate to what type of legal framework and practice should underpin its law in this arena. What type of divorce law and practice do we want? The Law Society has conducted this research in order to answer these difficult questions by looking at the evidence,” Shannon said.
Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan welcomed the Law Society’s report calling the current system unfair on separated couples both financially and emotionally, adding that the constitution is not the place for this matter.
For most separating couples a judicial separation is unavoidable prior to seeking a divorce in order to obtain some legal clarity on matters relating to issues like the family home; property; pension and other ancillary reliefs
“This means, not one, but two lengthy and expensive sets of court proceedings benefiting nobody but family lawyers,” Madigan said in a statement.
The other aspect of the Constitution that will change if the referendum is passed relates to the recognition of foreign divorces.
Here’s how to make sure you’re registered to vote on May 24
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shambles
My friend has not being paired since the 23rd of June…
We pay for the bank’s mistake and this is what we get in return !!! Compensation is not even in their agenda, Can’t wait to move bank now !!
I don’t think ulster bank is one of the bailed out banks but I’m open to correction on that.
It has had a bail out but not by our government
We did did nt pay for ulster Bk s mistake
Not being funny Daniel but could you rephrase that, I don’t have the slightest idea what you are trying to say.
If everybody that has an account with ulster bank closed it and moved banks they would get what’s coming to them they’d have to close good riddence
Move to who? Leave this lot because of incompetence and join one of the other lot who are corrupt to the bone? We don’t exactly have a choice here.
Agree with you there James, but this error shows a massive dis-regard for having error-checking and roll-back. Almost worse, imo, is their misinformation, and the length of time this has gone on.
I’m definitely moving to one of the Irish crappy banks once the back-log is completed. Probably moving Bank of Ireland.
Free banking me arse!
Having worked or 30 years in maintaining systems software on most of the large clearing banks, I find it quite unbelievable that a software ‘glitch’ could knock a banking system out for this length of time. Glitches are fixed in a matter of hours and should not affect any banking system with adequate back-up facilities and processes in place to manage software changes. I think it’s time Ulster Bank, RBS and Natwest came clean with what they believe are gullible customers. Dangerous to leave your money in the hands of these incompetents.
We’ve been sold the lie that if the banks go wallop that the sky will fall in and society will grind itself into the dust.
Well, let’s just see what happens when a bank loses all its customers.
Yes, it will go wallop, and life will go on without it.
Banks have forgotten that without customers they amount to nothing.
They badly need a good kicking.
Customers should see an improvement this morning with account balances showing some updates, really, tried logging on and service is temporarily unavailable, Q@A reply was that it must be my software!!!! never ever had an issue logging in before just another lame assed excuse again
I have to agree with Marist. I do not believe for one minute that this is a software glitch. The financial regulator should be doing his job, its clearly more illegal than a technical issue….
I thought they said Direct Debits would be all paid on customers behalf on time?
Not true unfortunately, woke up this morning and my internet service provider had disconnected me! Talk about the last fooking straw! Needless to say I got straight onto the ISP and ate them alive. Had the gall to tell me how where they to know it was a UB d/d. Opened new account yesterday, maybe I might just get paid next week.
All a bunch of lies. Service still the same….that is, unserviceable. Can’t even log in
Managed to login now and guess what!!!! I got a negative balance while yesterday night it was positive as I got funds transferred internally from my savings to my current account to get rid of another negative. Dunno what they are upto. Very suspicious. Once my new tsb account is set up, am defo out of UB. Forget me if I owe you money after you balance everything off in 2 weeks. I’ll take it as my personal compensation for all the hassle I’ve been through.
You’d genuinely have to be some fool to stay banking with Ulster Bank. A bank that doesn’t back up its IT systems, doesn’t adequately test IT fixes first.
I agree 100% but what are my alternatives. My business account is with them due to them having a Visa Debit facility. The only alternative I know of is BOI
What would happen if this was to happen again in the UK during the Olympics?????????
i presume when they say “some” they actually mean the majority of their customers direct debts have not come out. i really do hope that they mean it when they say that no customer Will be out of pocket Aswan result of this but i doubt it Will be that straight forward unfortunately and our credit ratings Will be affected. the companies that the direct debts were supposed to go to Will probably not take “it was the banks fault” as a legitimate excuse…
Got a text message from Meteor saying that service won’t be affected due to the UB crisis. At least a sensible provider.
This will continue for another 6 weeks, mark my words.
Good news, as of yesterday afternoon my salary is showing on my account. This was lodged on the 22nd June. No direct debits taken, paranoid that next time I log in that my balance has disappeared into cyber space. Hopefully these positive updates keep going.This has to be lessons to financial controllers who are trying to downsize to increase their bottom lines for the board, “that your arse will get burnt if you do not bring some kind of practicality into your plans”. I will wait to see how things go, but at the moment in favour of moving my account.
I understand that if you “can” withdraw cash and pay your bills, then as the bank are updating, your direct debits will be paid. This will leave you with double payments and it is up to you to recoup that extra payment. I am holding tight. It would not be good PR if any company tries to put pressure on you during this. Also the media need to report all who try to pressure and profit from the peoples grief. Just my take from what is going on.
it appears that we’re on our own, regulator not doing his job, media not doing a whole pile,oireactas going through the motions… pressure coming from no-where. I’m stuck abroad not able to access cash. What a joke. I’ll be leaving UB as soon as I get back. scary
After 25 years with them I am for the first time thinking about getting away from them ????
This is absolutely annoy and stressful…
This is my third week with no pay as of today. On the plus side my spending is way down. If I didn’t have my credit card and mortgage with them I would be gone already
I need to get money today as no direct debits have been paid & my service providers are close to reaching their limit of understanding with the Ulster Bank debacle so have to try manual payments…..can anyone confirm if the €500 that you can withdraw from the branch is a daily/weekly limit? Have tried phoning help line but can’t get through & their online systems are also down. Thanks in advance!
Is there any limit that they have imposed!!! Actually yesterday I retrieved a grand from account which should have been salary paid in since 2 weeks. Just showed them payslips and ID. Was asked by cashier how much i want to withdraw and i smiled and told told i want ALL. This is my money and I do what I want and place it where I want. Surely not UB anymore.
All direct debits and standing orders have been put on hold, so nothing will come out of your account until it is flagged as up to date. There is no problem taking any amount of money out, if you can prove it went in (ie transfer statement or pay/expense slip). I was able to get €1100 out yesterday to pay a non-UB credit card.nnOn a negative note, the ‘greeter’ in UB was taking a lot of flack from a customer and told her she wouldn’t see the balance until Monday week. Yes, week!nnSo, the world carries on, utilities and bills will be paid or deferred with UB taking the cost, and when you take cash out, make sure you take enough to cover what you would normally spend on laser and withdrawals to cover at least a week. It’s the eighties again for us UB customers – but still cheaper banking and mortgage than any other lender, so no – don’t go leaving to go to one of the corrupt banks after this…
@alien All direct debits etc have been put on hold!!! How can one explain my negative balance after I’ve personally made it positive yesterday!!! This has been the case since 2 weeks. Money going out even when there is no direct debit payment that I was expecting. Curious….
get my salary from the 28th and DD paid in the balance this morning. Same for my wife. didn’t get the child benefit yet.
I stay with them because now their system would be waterproof compared to the other banks however if I have another issue I’ll move my account.
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