Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is an interesting argument. As somebody who practices in the courts, I am a bit taken aback by what was said about maintenance. The payment has to be child related because if a spouse seeks individual support, it will amount to €80 or €90 and then the court will look at the children. That is what we have to do. I recall doing that when working on a judicial separation. That is what is involved in making proper provision. One would argue for €30 or €35 for a child. The maintenance payment is severable.

The argument I have is about even getting a court order when everything is in place. The judge orders someone to pay a certain amount, but that collapses after a month or six weeks. If the man does not pay the money, the judge then tells his spouse to come back in. The process starts all over again but in four months' time, the person will still not have a penny. The Minister should grab the ball now. She is innovative; I will say that for her. She should grab this ball and maybe in this review, she should make sure that is incorporated. They would say in Westmeath, which is not too far away from where she is from, that the head is not worth the wash in terms of going after this.

If we do this, it will cut out this nonsense and will keep this away from courts. The Minister is dealing with a social protection system. People in this position are vulnerable and are struggling, so this is important. If Deputy Brady wants to bring it even closer to home, he can leave out the word "child" and just include the "maintenance" and change it to six months. This would be a valuable report.