The High Court recognised and declared enforceable in Ireland two special guardianship orders made by Swansea County Court for two children, placing them in the care of their paternal grandparents. In a judgment delivered on 30 June 2016, Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan set out the reasons for orders she had made on 11 December 2013.
The case was brought by Carmarthenshire County Council under Chapter III of Council Regulation (EC) 2201/2003. The council had applied for recognition and enforcement of the Welsh court’s orders of 6 February 2013, made by consent in proceedings involving the children’s parents. The Swansea court had also separately allowed the grandparents to take the children from Wales to Ireland.
The judgment says Welsh child protection services became involved with the family in October 2011, after the Irish parents had moved to Wales with their children. Following care proceedings, a plan for the two children to live with their paternal grandparents was approved. The parents were aware of and supported that plan. A guardian ad litem had represented the children in the Welsh proceedings.
The Irish court treated the council’s motion as the hearing of the plenary action. The judge said the parents had been served. The second defendant had written that she did not intend to object; the first defendant had not entered an appearance. Neither the defendants nor the grandparents attended the December 2013 hearing.
The judge concluded that the special guardianship orders were judgments relating to parental responsibility under the EU regulation and that the council had supplied the required documents. She considered the grounds on which recognition or enforcement could be refused under Article 23 and found none applied. Among other points, she said the orders were not manifestly contrary to Irish public policy: they gave the grandparents parental responsibility but did not sever the children’s legal links with their parents. The children were too young to be formally interviewed under Irish law, she said, and had been represented in Wales. The parents had participated in the Welsh proceedings, and evidence showed no related proceedings in another Member State.
The court ordered that both Welsh orders be recognised and enforced in Ireland. It made no order as to costs and directed that notice of the order be sent to the second defendant and the grandparents by post, with reasonable attempts to deliver a copy by hand to the first defendant. The judgment records the recognition and enforcement decision; it does not reconsider the Welsh court’s underlying care decision.