Mr. Damien Peelo:

Deputy Clarke nailed it and she has highlighted the problems within the social protection system with the lack of interdepartmental co-operation and the lack of connectedness between them. The recent and high profile case of John O'Meara highlights this in a real way. For those who do not know, John O'Meara was a father who cohabited with his partner. They had three children together and were together for 20 years or so before his wife sadly died a year ago. John, in his naïveté, applied to the Department for the widower's grant and pension and was refused them based on the fact that he was not married to his partner. They were treated as two separate individuals, even though they both paid their PRSI and had both been working. For every other social welfare entitlement they would have been assessed individually but for this one they were treated separately. I know there is a Bill before the Seanad on this and that is one example.

There are other cases where we have a belief that the system is more invested in rooting out fraud and in suspicion of claimants and their need for making social welfare claims, particularly lone parents. This system is not conducive to supporting shared parenting and the Deputy has again highlighted the issue that if a mother has begun a new relationship and if that person comes to stay over there are all sorts of suspicions about whether they should be allowed to be in the house, what role they have and whether that affects the parent's entitlement. During lockdown we even had examples of parents who were subjected to social welfare inspections when the whole country was locked down to see if people were coming to stay with them and spending time in their homes. There is a lack of understanding of what shared parenting is and there is a need for training for front-line staff to be developed. That lack of understanding is ingrained in the culture and policies of the Department. There should be a requirement that anyone implementing the public sector human rights and equality duty would undergo training and understanding of what their role is, of what the shared parenting issues are and of what the challenges for many one-parent families are.

The Deputy has said it. Some of the issues that emerge in social protection and in supporting lone parents into shared parenting and developing new relationships are well documented. The means testing of medical cards, the working hours and the poverty traps that are there for people still exist, despite mountains of evidence going in to support the fact that the thresholds need to be lifted to support parents to remain out of poverty.