The High Court has struck out a motion concerning an Italian court’s 2010 non-return order for a child, finding that the Irish Central Authority need take no further steps in the case.
Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan delivered the judgment on 20 March 2013. The Minister for Justice and Equality, acting as Ireland’s Central Authority, had brought the motion under Article 11 of the EU Brussels IIa Regulation and the Rules of the Superior Courts.
The Irish Central Authority received documents from its Italian counterpart in June 2010, followed by further material in October. These included an Italian court’s decision in May 2010 not to order the child’s return. Further correspondence between the authorities continued into 2011, and it emerged that the father had sought to have proceedings transferred to Romania.
In July 2011, the Irish authority told the father, who was then resident in Ireland, that it intended to bring the Italian decision before the High Court and that he would have an opportunity to make submissions. In a response exhibited in the grounding affidavit, he asked the authority to acknowledge his intention not to proceed with a complaint against his former wife and to notify the High Court of his intention to close the case.
The judgment records that no further step was taken on the authority’s behalf until it issued the motion in March 2013. The child was born in May 1996 and was 16 by the time of the application. The judge noted that the Hague Convention on child abduction ceased to apply to the child on reaching 16.
The judge concluded that no further steps were required in relation to the Italian non-return order, taking account of the father’s indication that he did not wish to make submissions and the child’s age. She directed that the Central Authority need take no further steps on the motion and ordered that it be struck out.
The judgment stressed that this decision did not remove the Central Authority’s obligation to act promptly when it receives a non-return order and related documents under Article 11(6). It set out steps for checking whether Irish custody or access proceedings are pending and, if none are likely, promptly bringing the matter before the High Court. It said the steps should be taken promptly in the interests of the children concerned.