The High Court has left a €1,250-a-month spousal maintenance order unchanged after rejecting a former husband's application to reduce or end the payments and declining the former wife's request for an increase linked to inflation.
The anonymised parties, P.Q. and R.Q., reached a settlement when they judicially separated in 2010. It included transfer of the family home to P.Q., arrangements for numerous investment properties and monthly maintenance ultimately fixed at €1,250 gross.
R.Q. stopped making payments in September 2025 and later applied to vary or discharge the maintenance order. He said his financial position had substantially deteriorated as investment properties were repossessed or sold and that his future income would largely consist of State and private pensions.
P.Q. sought an increase to €1,689 a month based on Consumer Price Index changes. She argued that R.Q. had received significant proceeds from property sales and that his lifestyle and expenditure were inconsistent with his claimed inability to continue paying.
Ms Justice Nuala Jackson found substantial problems with R.Q.'s financial disclosure. The judgment records unexplained or inadequately vouched transfers of money following property sales, including large payments to a former partner and third parties, as well as foreign travel and other expenditure which the court found difficult to reconcile with his stated means.
The judge concluded that R.Q. had not proved the material change in circumstances required to alter the 2010 order. She found it was difficult not to conclude that stopping maintenance reflected an unwillingness to pay rather than an inability to do so.
However, the court also refused P.Q.'s requested increase. P.Q. had transferred substantial assets, including most of her interest in the former family home, to the parties' adult children. The judge found those resources could otherwise have contributed to her support.
The existing €1,250 monthly order therefore remains in place. R.Q. was also ordered to clear €12,500 in arrears accumulated over 10 months from September 2025 within three months of the judgment.