Court orders temporary removal of mother from family home so father 'can get a house for my child'

A judge today granted an emergency order to a Co. Clare man for the removal of his wife from the family home.

At a special sitting of the family court in Ennis today, Judge Marie Keane granted the Interim Barring Order (IBO) to the man after hearing that the couple’s daughter is self-harming due to the breakdown in her relationship with her mother.

The father and daughter vacated the family home a number of weeks ago and the mother has remained at the home.

The father told the court today that he and his daughter “are sleeping on couches and living out of Dunnes bags” at alternative accommodation.

The man told the court that he was making the Interim Barring Order (IBO) application “so I can get a house for my child tonight”.

Judge Keane told the court that the Interim Barring Order “is an extremely serious remedy and the court can only grant an Interim Barring Order in very, very specific circumstances”.

Judge Keane said that "it is a significant concern that the child is self harming here and there is no parental responsibility being adopted by the mother towards the child.

“In those circumstances and in the interests of welfare of the child, I will grant an Interim Barring Order until February 6”.

The application was being made on an ex-parte basis and the woman was not represented in court today.

The father told Judge Keane that the house is jointly owned between himself and his wife.

Judge Keane said that she would issue the IBO to the Gardaí to be served by them on the woman.

Judge Keane told the applicant that his application means “that she would have to leave the house”. In response, the man said: “I understand that.”

The man said that he has approached his wife “and I asked her ‘can we have form of resolution?’ and she told me that she is not budging from the house”.

He said:

I told her ‘we can’t live as we live as the young one has to go to school every morning’.

The man said when he asked his daughter about moving back in with her mother “she gets hysterical and she told me ‘I went through two years of hell and I am not gong back to it’".

The man said that his wife has anger management issues.

The man told the court: “If my daughter knocks over a can of coke or does anything in the very slightest, it goes from zero to one thousand for my wife.

"The child spends most of her time in her room because she is afraid to go out of the room. She stays away from her mother and tried to avoid her mother."

The man said that his daughter has marks on her arms.

He said:

She scrapes her hands because her mother is shouting at her.

The man explained that his wife admits that she does “have anger management issues but she doesn’t believe that she has a problem”.

He said that his wife does have family.

Judge Keane told the father that she recommends strongly that he contact the Child and Family Agency (CFA) concerning his daughter.