Every Irish divorce turns on a phrase most people meet for the first time in their solicitor’s office: proper provision. It isn’t decoration — the court cannot grant a divorce unless satisfied proper provision exists or will be made for the spouses and dependent children. So what’s inside the words?
Deliberately Not a Formula
Irish law chose discretion over arithmetic: no automatic half, no maintenance tables, no fixed shares. Provision is what’s proper in all the circumstances — the actual family, the actual assets, the actual history — and the content comes from section 20 of the 1996 Act: a list of factors the court must weigh. Among them: incomes, earning capacities and resources on each side; needs and obligations; the standard of living before the breakdown; ages and the marriage’s length; contributions — with looking after the home and caring for the family explicitly valued alongside earning; the effect family responsibilities had on earning capacity; accommodation needs; conduct only where it would be unjust to ignore.
What It Means in Practice
Three practical consequences. Cases are argued, not calculated: outcomes come from showing how the factors cash out on your facts — the career set aside, the years in the business, the inheritance kept separate — which is why preparation and evidence quality move results more than rhetoric does. Honest advice deals in ranges: a solicitor who quotes a percentage at a first consultation is guessing; the realistic range emerges from disclosure and valuation. Provision is a floor the court polices: even fully agreed settlements are ruled by the court, which must satisfy itself — your agreement is respected, not rubber-stamped.
And in asset cases: where resources comfortably exceed needs — the ample-resources category — needs stop being the ceiling, contributions and the marriage’s history carry more weight, and discretion widens further. Those are the cases this site exists for, and the hub page maps them.
What would proper provision look like on your facts? Ranges, honestly — 01 5827148.