Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister asks what the point is in having many different reports. The point in seeking these reports is that the Committee on Social Protection reviews policy on an ongoing basis. It is there to help the Minister, not to thwart him and trip him up. It is there to help him to get the best possible value for the huge amount of money this State spends, rightly, on social protection. We want to make sure that, as Deputy Brady says, the money is targeted and spent in the most efficient possible way. The Minister said that he has singled out one report, and I appreciate this. There is another issue in my amendment which warrants a separate report, but I will agree in this regard to accept the Minister's commitment to prepare a report on it rather than putting it into legislation. However, regarding lone parents, if the report will be done anyway - the Minister is making a commitment now - why not just write it into the legislation?

That would not do any violence to the legislation. It does not involve a charge on the Exchequer. It does not affect anything else in the Bill. What great insurmountable difficulty is there with writing it in? My proposal is for a report to be presented within three months. The proposal currently before the House is for this to happen within six months. I do not care which proposal the Minister accepts. I am not proud. I do not care whether the Minister accepts my proposal, the Sinn Féin proposal or the proposal in the name of Deputy Joan Collins. However, I certainly think this should be written into the legislation. I am not reflecting on the Minister in any way, or questioning his bona fides for one second, when I say that a previous Minister gave us a firm commitment to do something that patently was not done. The failure to do it caused a great deal of anguish to many people. As I have said, the acceptance of this amendment would not harm the legislation in any way. It would not be a bad precedent for the Government write its commitments into legislation. Surely there is no great objection in principle to that.