Mr. John McKeon:

I will take some of the questions and my colleagues will join in. In respect of Deputy O'Dea's question about the full guardianship and the half-rate carer's payment, what we are essentially looking to achieve in head 3 is that if somebody already validly in receipt of a payment - be it a widow's pension or a half-rate carer's payment - the receives a guardianship payment, it will not have a negative impact on the amount of money they receive through those payments. So the short answer to the Deputy's question is "Yes". If the person is validly in receipt of a payment and meets the conditions for that payment, he or she keeps the payment. In respect of the correlation between that and lone parents - as Senator Higgins noted, it applies to jobseekers as well - there is a difference. In respect of lone parents, the payment is specifically to provide for maintenance of the children as well as the parent's own living expenses so the payment already includes a payment in respect of the children. If somebody is receiving a maintenance payment from a former partner which might be quite significant , there is the question of whether we should disregard that maintenance payment. I do not think we should.

The guardianship payment is different. It is a payment made to somebody to recognise that they have a child who is not their own and to whom they are providing guardianship. If they are already in receipt of a payment which does not recognise that child and the receipt of the payment, getting the payment should not have an impact. They are two slightly different things and I do not think the issue raised by the Deputy is necessarily a valid one. It is something we will consider and return to. If it is an issue, we will reflect on it in the Bill but I do not think it is an issue.