The High Court has upheld an order enforcing Norwegian child maintenance decisions against K.W. in Ireland, rejecting his attempt to have the underlying calculations reconsidered here.
In an ex tempore judgment delivered on 17 October 2025, Mr Justice Sean Gillane dismissed K.W.'s appeal from an enforcement order made by the Deputy Master of the High Court in July 2023.
The dispute concerned maintenance for a child born in 2013. K.W. told the court that he had lived briefly in Norway around the time of the birth before moving to Ireland. He argued that he had not been properly notified of earlier maintenance decisions, that he had made substantial direct payments to the child's mother and that his income had been inaccurately assessed by the Norwegian authorities.
The enforcement application was made under the 2007 Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. Under that framework, Irish courts may refuse recognition on defined grounds, including lack of proper notice, but they cannot review the merits of the foreign decision itself.
The court was provided with formal statements confirming that the Norwegian decisions were enforceable and that K.W. had received proper notice and an opportunity to challenge or appeal them. Records also showed communications with Norway's Labour and Welfare Administration, known as NAV, including contact in 2014 and 2015. During the appeal, K.W. accepted that a lawyer had acted for him in dealings with NAV in late 2013 or early 2014.
Mr Justice Gillane found that K.W. must at least have known that the maintenance process had begun and could not establish that he had been denied an opportunity to be heard.
The judge said K.W.'s arguments about income calculations, direct payments and travel expenses were in substance an attempt to re-litigate the merits of the Norwegian decisions, which Articles 27 and 28 of the Convention expressly prohibit.
The Deputy Master's enforcement order was therefore upheld and the appeal refused.