Mr. Damien Peelo:

On the universal basic income scheme, research, including a great deal of work done by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, has shown the minimum income standards that are necessary. As we saw earlier during the pandemic, when the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, came in, it was set at a level that was recognised as necessary to be able to live, yet when people daily need a level of income to be able to survive, what they are given is much lower than what the PUP was. That payment was seen as being connected to work rather than to the basic need to live. Treoir fully supports the idea of a minimum standard of income and of living, and that is connected to a range of service provision as well, whereby publicly-funded services need to be made available.

On the question about men suffering from inequality, a lack of opportunity and discrimination, this relates primarily to the traditional sense of fathers being recognised as breadwinners rather than carers. Treoir works, in particular, in this sphere with parents who are not married. This committee has examined Article 41 and the possibility of constitutional change to recognise the rights of families and parents who are not married. There is a clear recognition that people who are not married do not have the same protections and rights as married parents. In terms of care, unmarried fathers do not have automatic rights to the guardianship of, access to and custody of their children. Even if they were cohabiting for many years and the relationship has broken down, they will not have rights to the access to and custody of their children, although they may be entitled to guardianship under the new regulations brought in with the Children and Family Relationships Act. There are issues with the equality of care and that carer responsibility should be shared out more equally between parents.