Women in some family law cases have an "unfair" advantage as they can get legal aid while their former partners cannot, an Oireachtas committee has heard.

TDs and senators were told of "a specific inequity" towards certain fathers due to qualifying criteria for civil legal aid.

The Oireachtas Justice Committee also heard evidence of an "imbalance in parental rights" with the courts failing to grant fathers enough access to their children.

Dr Carol Coulter, director of the Child Care Law Reporting Project, said she came across cases where a working father on a modest wage was above the means threshold for legal aid, while his wife, if a mother, would typically not be working or working part-time, and would fall under the threshold.

"Therefore, when the marriage broke down she would be eligible for legal aid and he would not, giving rise to an inequality of arms in any kind of legal proceedings. It is clearly unfair," she said.

Dr Coulter said a solution would be to remove or significantly increase the means threshold, while asking for a means-related contribution from litigants.

The committee heard another serious issue having an impact on fathers was access to their children following a split.

Director of Arc Mediation, Dr Róisín O'Shea, who has researched the issue, said the "default" access order given by the courts to the parent not living with the children was every second weekend and one night during the week. In 97pc of cases the non-resident parent is the father.

Dr O'Shea discovered these sort of orders originated from expert reports in cases where there was a welfare issue raised in relation to a child.

"The every second weekend and one night during the week was meant to be the least amount of time a non-resident parent had with their child, not the norm," she said.

"What has happened is that all of our courts now order that as the norm. That is impacting on fathers and that is a very serious issue."

Dr O'Shea said it could be resolved with parenting guidelines. She pointed to Canada where it is recommended children under the age of five or six shouldn't be away from the other parent for more than four days. She also said the "imbalance in parent rights" could be addressed by "good, competent mediation linked to our courts".

Damien Peelo, CEO of Treoir, a specialist information service, said conflict between unmarried parents was often made worse by the fact unmarried fathers do not have automatic guardianship rights. "Even if his name is on the child's birth certificate, an unmarried father does not have rights in respect of his child. This creates inequality in respect of parental rights and responsibilities which often results in parents going to court," he said. "The adversarial route clogs up the courts and leads to tensions and conflicts between the parents."

Mr Peelo said automatic guardianship had been extended to unmarried fathers whose names are registered on the child's birth certificate in Northern Ireland since 2002.

Irish Independent