Family mediation for separating parents (Ireland)

If you're separating and looking for family mediation in Ireland, Accord offers relationship counselling and mediation to help you work things through together. You can also find a professionally accredited family mediator through the Mediators' Institute of Ireland, who'll have the training to guide you both towards agreement.

For wider support, One Family run the askonefamily helpline and offer separation courses to help you navigate this time, while Parents Plus has a specific Parenting When Separated course. If you've children, Barnardos Ireland and Accord (through their Teen Between service) both support young people affected by separation. If you need information about court processes or legal applications, the Courts Service of Ireland has guidance on family law matters.

In Ireland you have a genuinely free route into mediation. The state's Family Mediation Service, run by the Legal Aid Board, costs nothing to use, and you do not need to have been married to your child's other parent to qualify. Private mediators are also an option if you would rather not wait for an appointment. Here is what is worth knowing before you start.

• The Legal Aid Board's Family Mediation Service is free, with seventeen offices nationwide and further mediation offices at some District Court venues (legalaidboard.ie).
• If you go to a solicitor about court proceedings, they must advise you to consider mediation as a possible way to resolve the dispute, explain its benefits and give you details of mediators (citizensinformation.ie).
• What you agree in mediation is usually written up as a Note of Mediated Agreement. It is not a legal agreement in itself, but you can bring it to a solicitor to be drawn into a legal contract or deed of separation (citizensinformation.ie).
• A common mix-up: mediation is not marriage counselling and it is not a legal advice service; it is a way to negotiate practical arrangements with an independent mediator (citizensinformation.ie).
• For the free service, each of you contacts the Family Mediation Service separately to arrange an appointment, and there may be a waiting list in your area (citizensinformation.ie).

Checked August 2026 against legalaidboard.ie and citizensinformation.ie.

Mediation is a voluntary, confidential way to sort out arrangements without going to court. A trained, neutral mediator helps you both reach your own agreement.

• It is usually quicker and cheaper than court, and you can stop at any time.
• Sessions can be held separately if being in the same room is difficult.
• The mediator does not take sides or give legal advice.
• You can still get your own legal advice alongside mediation.