Ireland

There is no publicly available government data on child marriage in Ireland.

More recently in Ireland, a new form of child trafficking of sham and forced marriages are on the rise. These marriages of convenience often involve young European girls, predominantly from Eastern Europe, and nationals from non-European Union countries seeking legal residence in Ireland.

Child marriage is driven by gender inequality and the belief that women and girls are somehow inferior to men and boys.

There is limited information on child marriage in Ireland.

Ireland has committed to ending child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The government submitted a Voluntary National Review at the 2023 High Level Political Forum; however, there was no mention of child marriage.

Ireland co-sponsored the following Human Rights Council resolutions: the 2013 procedural resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2015 resolution on child, early and forced marriage, the 2017 resolution on recognising the need to address child, early and forced marriage in humanitarian contexts, the 2019 resolution on the consequences of child marriage, the 2021 resolution on child, early and forced marriage in times of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2023 resolution on ending and preventing forced marriage. In 2014, Ireland also signed a joint statement at the Human Rights Council calling for a resolution on child marriage.

Ireland co-sponsored the 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

Ireland ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, which the Committee on the Rights of the Child has interpreted to recommend the establishment of a minimum age of marriage of 18, and acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1985, which obligates states to ensure free and full consent to marriage.

During its 2023 review, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that the government strengthen measures to prevent child marriages, particularly within the Roma and Traveller communities, and to raise awareness on the harmful consequences of child marriage.

In 2016 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that Ireland speed up its removal of all exceptions in the Family Law Act 1995, which permits marriages to take place under the age of 18. From 1 January 2019, it is no longer possible to get a Court Exemption Order allowing a marriage to proceed if one or both parties are under 18 years.

Ireland has ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combatting violence against women and domestic violence (known as the Istanbul Convention), which considers forced marriage a serious form of violence against women and girls, and legally binds state parties to criminalise the intentional conduct of forcing an adult or child into a marriage.

In 2019, at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25, Ireland committed to end gender-based violence through the implementation of the Second National Strategy (2016-2021), and through Ireland’s international development co-operation.

At the London Girl Summit in July 2014, the government signed a charter committing to end child marriage by 2020.

In recent years Ireland has made gender equality a priority in its international development co-operation and foreign policy. Preventing and responding to all forms of gender-based violence (SDG 5.2) and harmful practices (SDG 5.3) are a core priority for Irish Aid (Ireland’s overseas development programme), who provide funding for international NGOs working on child marriage, such as Plan International Ireland and ActionAid Ireland.

Ireland Family Law Act (1995, amended to 2022) 31.—(1) (a) (i) A marriage solemnised, after the commencement of this section, between persons either of whom is under the age of 18 years shall not be valid in law.

In addition, the Domestic Violence Act 2018 criminalises the act of forcing someone to enter into a ceremony of marriage or removing a person from the country for such purposes.