By Maeve Rowan
The High Court has granted a judicial separation to an anonymised couple and ordered the sale of their €1.5 million family home, with the net proceeds to go to the applicant as part of a wider financial settlement.
The parties married in 2006, separated in July 2023 and have three dependent teenage children. They had already agreed arrangements for the children through mediation and successfully operated a “nesting” arrangement, under which the children remained in the family home while the parents rotated in and out.
The main dispute was financial provision. The family’s assets included the home and adjoining land, two pre-marriage residential properties, a specialist farming business operated through A Ltd, substantial business lands and pensions.
The applicant sought an equal division of assets. The respondent argued that many of the assets came from his family of origin and were also essential to the business that generated the family’s income.
Ms Justice Nuala Jackson accepted that the applicant had made a substantial contribution through childcare and homemaking and had given up permanent, pensionable employment after the children were born. She also found that she was capable of returning to paid work, although her earning potential would probably remain significantly below that of the respondent.
The judge rejected a 50:50 division. She held that Irish family law requires “proper provision” rather than automatic equal sharing and that the inherited and income-producing character of much of the property had to be taken into account.
The family home and adjoining company-owned parcel are to be sold, with the applicant receiving the net proceeds. She will also receive a €100,000 lump sum, a pension adjustment worth €266,297 and €2,000 monthly maintenance for the three children, together with specified education, health and extracurricular costs.
No spousal maintenance was ordered. The applicant may either sell her 15% shareholding in A Ltd at its agreed valuation or retain it subject to terms giving her a future 15% interest in the value of specified business property if it is later sold or valued when the respondent reaches 65.