John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the representatives of Focus Ireland and One Family for coming to meet us. Several groups have already come to present their perspectives on lone parent families and the impact of the changes introduced in 2015.

Both submissions were excellent and contained very useful information. One Family refers to a universal payment to assist the poorest children and increasing the qualified child payment. My party has costed that measure and wanted to see a €5 increase, from €29.80 to €34.80, which would have cost €98.6 million in 2017. We have yet to obtain further costings, but the proposal would be worth considering.

We see the impact of the cuts in the back to school clothing and footwear allowance. My party has also focused on that targeted payment. In its presentation the Society of St. Vincent de Paul outlined graphically how the demand on its services had risen substantially when the cuts were implemented. The Department gave us the cost of restoring the rate at just over €14 million. That would represent an increase of €50. We want to increase the allowance over a couple of budgets. I concur with the recommendations made.

The payment of child maintenance has created huge difficulties. We heard a presentation by Single Parents Acting for the Rights of our Kids, SPARK, in which it outlined the difficulties the current set-up was causing for lone parents.

If the payment is not paid over it impacts on the family. Other countries have been mentioned. Has thought been given to what happens in other countries? In the UK and the North of Ireland they have the Child Maintenance Service, where the issue is completely taken away from the parent. That service chases down the other parent, if the address of the second parent is not known. It also works out maintenance rates, which are re-evaluated on an annual basis. There are some good models, and I am wondering if any specific models have been looked at. I am interested in any views on that.

In regard to Focus Ireland, the information supplied was very useful and I thank Ms O'Reilly and Mr. Allen for coming in. A figure which jumped out at me was that 65% of homeless people are lone parent families. That certainly set off alarm bells in my head. I had not heard that figure before. It is very frightening. I would be interested to hear any views on that. There has been a lot of talk recently about rents and rent certainty, and changes have been made. I am interested in hearing any views on the changes that have been brought in. We, in Sinn Féin, have been looking for real rent certainty and index linking any increases to rent. Unfortunately, that was not agreed to but I would be interested in hearing any views on that and any recommendations the witnesses have. I know that is outside the scope of this committee, but I am interested in hearing more on that.