When granting an order of judicial separation the judge can make a number of different orders in relation to the family home. For example, under section 10 of the Family Law Act, 1995 the judge can make an order granting sole rights of residence in the family home to one spouse to the exclusion of the other spouse. The judge can also make a barring order against either spouse.
Court records are not maintained in a way which would provide statistics on the number of cases in which rights of sole occupancy in the family home were granted to one spouse. However, statistics which are available on the number of judicial separations granted by the Circuit Court and the High Court and on the number of barring orders granted by the Circuit Court for recent years are given below. It is not possible to say how many of these barring orders were granted to women or how many were granted in the course of judicial separations proceedings.
It is a matter for the judge concerned having heard the facts of each case and considered all other relevant information including the circumstances of the parties involved to decide whether or not to make an order in favour of either spouse granting him-her sole residency in the family home. It is also for the judge to decide if the circumstances of the case warrant the granting of a barring order against either spouse. No research has been carried out by my Department into the whereabouts of the excluded-barred spouse following the making of such orders and it has no information on the number of persons who may have become homeless as a result thereof.
