The courts face no legal bar from considering pre-nuptial agreements, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Tánaiste Michael McDowell said last night.
However, speaking in the Seanad, Mr McDowell said the weight judges can give to such agreements must be less than the weight they give to requirements they must consider under law.
The Minister was responding to a motion put down by Fine Gael Senator Fergal Browne that called for a report on the status of pre-nuptials from the Law Reform Commission within nine months.
Saying that he was going to ask a specially-appointed expert group to report on the issue instead, Mr McDowell said the commission has "a heavy programme" of work it must complete by the end of next year.
Currently, a pre-nupital agreement could be examined by judges dealing with a marriage breakdown case to see what terms were agreeable to the couple at the time they got married.
Up to now, judges have ruled that such agreements have no standing in Irish law because no agreement "envisaging the dissolution of a marriage should be enforceable".
"The removal of the constitutional prohibition on divorce in Ireland has weakened that public policy justification," the Tánaiste told the Seanad.
