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 eliminate child, early and forced marriage by 2030 in line with target 5.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals. Ireland mentioned its national policies designed for achieving target 5.3 (called One World, One Future and The Global Island) in its 2018 Voluntary National Review at the High Level Political Forum. The government has not submitted a Voluntary National Review in any High Level Political Forum since.

Ireland has signed the 2021 Human Rights Council resolution on Child, Early and Forced Marriage in times of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

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, and the 2019 resolution on the consequences of child 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, 2018 and 2020 UN General Assembly resolutions on child, early and forced marriage.

Ireland ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992, which sets 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.

In 2016 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that Ireland remove all exceptions in the Family Law Act, 1995, that enable marriages to take place under the age of 18.

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 provides funding for international NGOs working on child marriage, such as Plan International Ireland and ActionAid Ireland.

Under the Family Law Act 1995 the minimum legal age of marriage is 18 years. However, individuals may marry before 18 with the permission of the court.

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.