Minister Jim O’Callaghan launches innovative new child maintenance calculator
- Published on: 26 February 2026
- Last updated on: 26 February 2026
The Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Jim O’Callaghan has today (Thursday 26 February) launched an innovative new online child maintenance calculator to help parents in coming to arrangements on child maintenance payments.
The calculator can be accessed online from today at www.childmaintenancecalculator.ie
The launch of the calculator follows on from the publication last month by Minister O’Callaghan of Ireland’s first set of Child Maintenance Guidelines. The calculator is intended to help make the guidelines more accessible for parents.
Development of the guidelines was a key recommendation of the 2024 Review of the Enforcement of Child Maintenance Orders.
Minister O’Callaghan said:
“I am working to progress significant family justice reforms.
The launch of this innovative new calculator today, along with the recent publication of child maintenance guidelines, are central to improving fairness, consistency and transparency when parents are making child maintenance arrangements.
“I am confident the guidelines and the calculator will be helpful tools for parents who choose, and for whom it is possible, to make private arrangements for child maintenance between themselves, rather than through the court system.
“They will assist parents in determining fair child maintenance payments, reducing conflict by making the calculation of child maintenance more objective.
The calculator is available online at www.childmaintenancecalculator.ie and takes four simple steps to obtain an estimated child maintenance amount. I would encourage parents to consult the guidelines and calculator when coming to arrangements on child maintenance.”
The Review of the Enforcement of Child Maintenance Orders, published in January 2024, was one of the actions contained in the “Supporting Children” goal of the Family Justice Strategy 2022-2025.
ENDS…///
Notes for the Editor
- The Review of the Enforcement of Child Maintenance Orders was published in January 2024 and put forward 26 recommendations focused on generating maximum compliance with child maintenance orders, to ensure security and stability for children and to aid poverty prevention.
- Key recommendations included the development of a set of child maintenance guidelines.
- An interdepartmental group (“The Child Maintenance Guidelines Committee”) was established in February 2024 and tasked to develop a set of child maintenance guidelines for use by all parties, on a voluntary basis, when putting child maintenance arrangements in place.
- The group was also tasked with the development of an online calculator to help determine fair child maintenance payments.
- In April 2025, the Child Maintenance Guidelines Committee conducted a survey-based consultation to get the public's views on important aspects of the guidelines.
- On the 19 January 2026, the Minister published Ireland’s first set of Child Maintenance Guidelines, along with the report on the public consultation. See https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-justice-home-affairs-and-migration/publications/child-maintenance-guidelines-for-ireland/.
- A brief explanatory video on how to use the calculator can be found at https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-justice-home-affairs-and-migration/collections/child-maintenance-calculator/