The High Court ordered expanded access for a father to his three children, including Friday overnight contact on the first weekend of each month and set periods during summer and Easter holidays. The court stayed the new arrangements until the end of the Christmas school holidays in January 2016.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Barr on 4 December 2015, concerned a dispute over access arrangements following the breakdown of the parents’ marriage. The children had been taken into care by consent in September 2013 and remained there until November. They were later de-listed by Tusla in April 2014.
The father sought more time with the children. The mother and a Tusla social care leader opposed an increase. The social care leader said Tusla considered the children could be at risk of emotional abuse if access was extended and might seek to have them taken into care again. Those were the leader’s views and submissions; the father denied abusing the children or using them as an emotional crutch.
Existing court orders provided for weekly Wednesday contact and several weekends each month. The judge noted that the arrangements had operated satisfactorily, that the children had been de-listed, and that the social care leader had not seen them since June 2015. The mother also accepted that Wednesday and weekend contact was working satisfactorily.
The judge concluded that it was illogical to suggest that adding Friday evening contact to an arrangement already allowing Saturday and Sunday contact would suddenly expose the children to a risk of emotional abuse. Finding that some further access was in the children’s best interests, the court amended the earlier orders. On the first weekend of each month, the father was to collect the children at 6pm Friday and return them at 8.30pm Sunday, or 9.30pm during school holidays. During summer holidays, he was also granted Tuesday evening to Wednesday evening contact outside specified holiday periods.
The order allocated one week in July and one week in August to each parent, with handover times specified. It also set Easter holiday periods, left arrangements for Christmas 2015 to the Circuit Court judge dealing with the pension adjustment order, required court approval for changes, and directed annual review in the Circuit Court. The parties could apply to that court for clarification.
The judge said the parents were not yet able to manage their relations sufficiently to make flexible arrangements between themselves, and urged them to enter into dialogue. After the respondent sought a stay to allow the parties to consider the new arrangements and contact Tusla, the court granted it until the end of the Christmas school holidays in January 2016.