Couple bring battle over the immersion switch to family court

Judge told water is cold when husband returns from work

A HUSBAND has claimed in court that his wife has breached sworn undertakings given to court in relation to the use of an immersion switch in the family home.

In the case at the Family Law Court, the couple each have temporary protection orders against each other, and have provided sworn undertakings in court that cover the use of the immersion switch which is to be left on during the day.

The couple are separated but continue to live with their children in the family home.

Now at the Family Law Court, solicitor Lorraine O’Callaghan Daly, for the husband, told Judge Alec Gabbett that ‘there have been breaches of the undertakings given to court in relation to the immersion switch’.

Ms O’Callaghan Daly told the court her client ‘is adamant that when he goes out in the morning, the immersion is switched on and when he comes back in the evening, it is miraculously switched off and there is plenty of cold water, no hot water’.

In response, solicitor Ronan Connolly, for the wife, said the immersion is not required as there is an electric shower in the ensuite bathroom attached to his client’s bedroom.

In reply, Ms O’Callaghan Daly told Judge Gabbett: ‘That is exactly the point. My client needs the immersion because he has agreed not to go into your client’s bedroom by way of undertaking.’

Ms O’Callaghan Daly said the use of the shower heated by the immersion ‘is very important’ to her client due to the work he engages in during the day.

Mr Connolly told the judge it is denied that there have been any breaches of the undertaking concerning the immersion.

‘My client can go into the witness box and she will say categorically that she has never interfered with the immersion switch since your order, and you can judge for yourself whether it stands up or not,’ he said.

Mr Connolly said the husband has recently been convicted in the District Court for a breach of a protection order, adding: ‘And they come into court to tell you about breaches? We are not in breach of your order... We are complying religiously. We have done everything you have said.

We have completed the parenting course… everything is progressing in the Circuit Court.’

In the District Court in January, Judge Adrian Harris imposed a two-month suspended sentence on the man for the protection order breach. This arose from a row between the couple on the morning of a child’s Confirmation last May.

As part of the conditions attached to the suspended term, Judge Harris ordered the man not to enter his wife’s bedroom.

Ms O’Callaghan Daly told Judge Gabbett her client is appealing the District Court conviction and a date is awaited for the case to proceed in the Circuit Court.

On the immersion, Judge Gabbett asked: ‘What about the central heating?’ Ms O’Callaghan Daly replied: ‘It is linked to the immersion. This immersion switch has to go on for my client to have a hot shower.’

The judge previously commented on the row over the immersion switch when he asked: ‘It is very 1950s, isn’t it?’

He asked how long more the couple plan living together. Ms O’Callaghan Daly said: ‘We are taking certain steps in two weeks’ time which may assist.

‘Other than that, we are awaiting a case progression hearing [in the Circuit Court].’ At the hearing over the protection order breach in January, the ex-wife told the court: ‘I am only in the house because I want to raise the children in their own home, in their beds where they are safe.’

Judge Gabbett adjourned the hearing concerning the alleged immersion breach to May.

‘It is very 1950s, isn’t it?’