Tormey sees her daughter just nine weeks of the year. For the rest of the time, the little girl lives with her father in Padua, Italy.

Tormey, from Collon, Co Louth, is trying to bring her case to the European Court of Justice but has been unable to make much headway.

All that has changed is that she is beginning to lose hope that she will ever be able to live with her daughter while she is growing up. "It's a horrible situation, " she said. "I can only see her when she comes home on holidays or when I go over for weekends to see her. I've only done that three times in the last year because it's just too hard for both of us, to see each other for such a short time and then have to say goodbye all over again."

Tormey met Aisling's father, Gianluca, in Belfast while taking a gap year after gaining her degree in Biochemistry from Queens University.

When he became injured with a slipped disc, she accompanied him to Italy for treatment and Aisling was born there in 1998.

The relationship soured after a few years, and when Tormey returned to Ireland with Aisling for her brother's wedding in 2001, she decided to stay at home.

Gianluca followed them, looking for custody of his daughter. "I didn't realise it was illegal, but under the terns of the Hague Convention, Aisling's situation had to be sorted out in Italy where she lived, " said Tormey.

What ensued was a three-and-a-halfyear legal battle played out in the courts of Venice as Tormey and Gianluca battled for their child's custody. With no idea of how long it was going to last, Tormey worked part-time as an English teacher and struggled to make ends meet.

She lived in a converted garage at Gianluca's home and cooked on two camper stoves. "If I'd known how long it was going to take, I wouldn't have had the strength to make it through, " she said.

Tormey's case for custody was intensely scrutinised in court, with psychological reports prepared and social workers sent to Collon to investigate the child's future living conditions. The judge ordered Tormey to return to Ireland to prove she could get a job before returning to Italy, which she did.

It was all worth it when the judge ruled that Tormey "was obviously willing to sacrifice everything to keep her child" and awarded custody to her. But joy quickly turned to horror when, within one month, an appeal court overturned that verdict and instead awarded custody to Aisling's father.

Since then, Tormey has had to live by the conditions set by the appeal court, with no chance to appeal unless she goes to the High Court, a process that is both lengthy and expensive.

"All this has been very hard on Aisling and you can tell how it's made a difference to her, " said Tormey, who has her daughter home now for the summer holidays.

"The last year has made a big difference to her. She has a bit of an attitude one minute when she's loud and cheeky, and then the next minute she's crying and wants to be cuddled. She's still looking to sit on my knee all the time, instead of like a normal eight-year old who would be more independent. It's just very unfair on her."

Ireland's multicultural status has led to more and more custody cases being fought between parents of different nationalities in recent years.

It is a grey area where a parent can be left bereft of their child almost permanently.

Even more disturbing is the rise in children being abducted to other countries by parents who have failed to get custody of them.

The latest figures compiled, from 2004, show that 70 cases involving 97 children were dealt with by the Central Authority for Child Abduction that year.

These included 49 cases of children being brought into the country and 45 cases of children being taken out. However, according to Mary Banotti, MEP and founder of the Irish Centre for Parentally Abducted Children, the latter figure is far greater than recorded.

This is because cases related to countries not signed up to the Hague Countries are not included.

"We have seen an increase in calls relating to children being taken to these countries [not signed up to the Hague Convention], " she said. "These countries pose the biggest problem because if, for example, a child is abducted to one of the north African countries, there is absolutely no chance of getting them back."

Tormey knows she is lucky that Aisling is allowed to travel to Ireland to visit her, but it is cold comfort. "If it were up to her or me, she would be with her mother, " she said.

"As it is, we have a long wait until she is old enough to choose for herself, and that's very sad."