A comprehensive report on debt-enforcement has suggested that sheriffs should be given the authority to uphold court orders relating to child maintenance payments. The evaluation, conducted by the Department of Justice alongside the Revenue Commissioners, is centred around an enforcement system that has been utilised the longest and most frequently.
The study put forth 27 recommendations, one of them being that additional duties for enforcing could be assigned to the sheriff. The Child Maintenance Review Group’s 2022 report identified issues surrounding the enforcement of maintenance payments, labelling it as the most strenuous and complex issue. It also highlighted that the effectiveness of the maintenance process is being compromised, necessitating immediate rectifications.
The report, issued on Wednesday, states that the review group believes court decisions on maintenance, covering arrears, could be delegated to the sheriff for efficient enforcement. The group’s primary recommendation is the retention and modernisation of the office, as it is an effective debt enforcement tool that has shown high recovery rates, as compared to international standards.
In 2022, sheriffs received over 30,000 revenue warrants, amounting to €411.6 million, and successfully recovered €90.4 million in debt. The report advocates for heightened accountability and transparency, suggesting that the sheriffs should provide the Department of Justice with more intricate financial and enforcement information annually. Furthermore, county registrars are also encouraged to submit similar data to the Courts Service.
The lack of intricate data on the sheriffs’ income from fees and expenditure levels prevented the group from extensively recommending a model for future financing. Sheriff fee levels, which are percentages of recovered amounts rather than fixed sums, have remained unchanged since 2005. The report suggests that this arrangement makes fee level revisions less urgently required than expected.
Lastly, the report recommends that a liaison officer should be allocated in every Garda District to serve as a communication link with the local sheriff. The study also touched on the public disorder and substantial media coverage resulting from evictions and repossessions due to mortgage arrears.
Misconceptions or misrepresentations regarding the involvement of An Garda Síochána in such circumstances often lead to public unease, according to the report. The review unit emphasised that the conduct of debt recovery in these situations is not the Gardaí’s remit but remains central to the duty of the sheriff or county registrar. Their role largely involves maintaining public order.
The evaluation suggests enhancing state supervision, which includes incorporating sheriffs into the Ethics in Public Office Acts’ purview. Noel Waters, preceding chief secretary of the Justice Department who presided over the review, expressed his enthusiasm for the recommendations to bolster and modernise the role in order to guarantee its sustained applicability.
He further specified that this modernisation is heavily reliant on the design and establishment of a refreshed and efficient mutual monitoring and oversight strategy between the Justice Department and the Office of the Revenue Commissioners, expressing his eagerness at seeing its progress.