subpoena of records for seperation purposes

[Ringading]

To anyone that can help.

I live in Ireland.

I have an enquiry that if possible, requires an urgent response.

I have a friend who is in the initial stages of a seperation from her husband of 9 years, with three children involved.

As it stands, she informaly seperated from her husband approximately 2 and a half months ago i.e. she told him that she wanted to seperate and didn't get it verified at a legal level. Since then, her and her husband have been sleeping in seperate bedrooms and no longer act as man and wife except with regards to the children.

The reason for my enquiry is, that now that he realises, after many attempts to convince her to give the marriage another try, it is over, he is consulting a solicitor to gain custody of the three children and possession of the house. He has told her that he wants her to move out permenantly and is prepared to bring her to court for this. He has said that he is going to subpoena access to her medical records and also subpoena her mobile phone company for her text message records (wants the content of her text messages) as he wants to attempt to proove that she has commited adultery.

Since her seperation, her and her husband made an agreement that should either of them meet anyone else, that out of respect for one another, they would inform each other. That been said, after they were seperated she was asked out on a date and after considering it and informing her ex husband of it, she went on the date.

Now he is insisting that she was having an affair all along (which she hasn't) and that is the reason he wants to subpoena the medical records and phone records and insists to her that if this should go to court (which it will) she will be the one that will have to move out and leave the children with him, so it is in her best interests to move out now. This is obviously not what she is going to do. He has admitted to going through the inbox of her mobile phone and reading text messages belonging to her, some of which were from the man she has been dating of late.

Given this information, I have attempted to find out as much as I can regarding the laws governing her situation, but as I am not a lawyer, am finding it very hard to aquire what I need. Does he have grounds to subpoena the information he seeks and gain possession of the house and custody of the children.

She is the main caretaker of the children, while he has a full time job that requires him to travel approximately 40% of the time (anywhere between 3 days and a week at a time).

She has a part time week end job.

Where would she stand with regards to maintenance also.

This is quite an urgent matter at the moment and I would be most grateful for help with regards to this and your advise on what the next steps would be for her.

Thank you for a quick response to this if possible.