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Parents in legal battle over whether daughter should receive medical care in Ireland or Poland
An Irish man and a Polish woman are involved in a legal battle over where their young daughter should receive care for a number of medical conditions.
According to medical records, the girl, who is 3½ years old, is
autistic
and suspected to have epilepsy.
The couple, who are married but estranged, previously lived together in Ireland before the mother moved back to
Poland
with their daughter in March 2024.
In May 2025, a Polish court ruled that the young girl, who was born in Ireland and is an Irish citizen, should be brought back here as the mother relocated her to Poland without her father's consent.
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To date, the mother has refused to obey the court order, saying their daughter will not receive the treatment she needs due to long waiting lists in Ireland.
Polish people constitute the largest non-Irish group living in Ireland. At the time of the
2022 Census
, almost 93,000 Poles lived here.
The girl's father has spent the last two weeks in Poland, trying to bring her back. He has travelled to Poland on numerous occasions over the past year to attend court hearings. In May, a judge declared he should be allowed to bring his daughter back to Ireland.
The order, seen by The Irish Times, stated that a date must be 'immediately set' for the removal of their daughter to Ireland. On foot of this ruling, Polish authorities ordered that the mother hand over their daughter on June 16th.
The father travelled to Poland for that meeting. However, the mother and daughter were not at the address in question when the father and officials arrived. The father said he has not seen his daughter in person in months and is distressed that her whereabouts are unknown.
'I have not seen my daughter since the Warsaw courthouse in January. Nobody, nobody in this country can confirm where my daughter is since May 27th ,' he said.
The mother's legal case centres on her belief that their daughter will receive better treatment in Poland.
'[Our daughter] requires intensive, specialist neuropsychiatric, speech therapy and psychological support. In Poland, we have access to trusted medical centres and doctors who know [her] history and can provide effective, ongoing treatment,' the mother said via an email.
'Unfortunately, in Ireland, the waiting times for therapy and diagnostics are extremely long.'
There are
significant delays
for autism assessments in Ireland, with some families waiting up to three years.
Polish doctors have advised against disrupting the girl's treatment as relocating may lead to a 'regression' in her development, according to her medical records.
The father argues that he is able to pay for private healthcare in Ireland. He said his daughter has essentially been abducted by her mother, but she denies this claim.
'The most important issue was to ensure that [their daughter] received the medical and therapeutic care she urgently needed,' she said.
Both Ireland and Poland are signed up to the Hague Convention, which is one of the main legal frameworks for dealing with international child abduction cases. Child abduction is deemed to have occurred when a child is removed from a person who has legal custody without that person's consent.
Court documents in the case note that both parents had equal custody rights at the time of the daughter's removal from Ireland. The court ruled that the mother's actions constituted the unlawful retention of the child in Poland.
As part of the Hague Convention, each country has a central authority that facilitates the return of abducted children to the country of their habitual residence.
In Ireland, the Central Authority at the
Department of Justice
deals with such cases. A spokesperson for the department noted that a Minister 'cannot intervene in private, civil or international legal matters which are the subject of court proceedings either in Ireland or another jurisdiction'.
The spokesperson said the Central Authority also cannot get involved in any legal proceedings happening in another country, instead acting as 'a transmitting and receiving agency, communicating any updates or requests for information between an applicant and the authorities of the other state'.
'It relies on the authorities of the other state to progress the application through their institutions and to keep it informed of any developments,' the spokesperson said.
The Irish Times understands that the Embassy of Ireland in Warsaw is providing consular assistance, but also cannot intervene in a legal case. The Department of Foreign Affairs did not reply to requests for comment.
The father's lawyer, who is based in Poland, said: 'The problem of the Polish legal system is that there isn't really a direct way to enforce this final ruling.' She said Polish authorities can only ask a parent to comply, they cannot force them.
The father questioned how one parent can relocate a child to another country without the consent of the other parent, saying it sets a worrying precedent.
[
Abducted by a parent: Heartbreaking cases of the Hague Convention
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'The Hague Convention is not fit for purpose,' the father said, adding that he has 'jumped through all the hoops of another country's system' with little support.
'I can't fight the Polish state alone.'
