Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for attending the meeting and for their presentations. I have always been of the mind that the courts are not the place for dealing with child maintenance. It seems there is consensus on that. It is not the right environment to determine child maintenance arrangements. As we know, payments can be ordered by the judge of the day, who can choose a figure off the top of his or her head. There are no guidelines set out. Moreover, whatever figure the judge chooses is not necessarily paid. Every time, it is up to the lone parent to go back to court, a bench warrant is issued and, often, there is no prosecuting garda in attendance.

At every point, the burden comes back on lone parents. We really need to take it off their shoulders. I firmly believe a child maintenance service can only be beneficial for lone-parent families and the children of those families. The children need to be central in the process but they are not central at the moment, which is part of the problem. As other speakers have noted, there is a real need in this to deal with poverty and lift children out of poverty. There is evidence to show that when maintenance is paid, it plays a role in doing that.

We are waiting for the report of the child maintenance review group. That group was established in 2020 and it is welcome. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, received its report at Easter time and she confirmed to me two weeks ago that she will bring it to the Government before the end of the year. It is highly likely, therefore, that we will not see it until next year, which would be really disappointing. I urge the committee to seek the publication of the report as soon as possible. I have no doubt good work has been done in producing it and it would be great for the stakeholders to see it. Let us have the engagement on it and move forward from there.

Whatever the outcome of the report, which I hope is to recommend that a child maintenance service be established, it will not happen overnight. Will the witnesses indicate what can be done now that will make a difference? One such action would be removing the inclusion of maintenance payments as household means for the purpose of assessing eligibility for social welfare payments and housing. Ms Bayliss has raised the issue of housing a number of times. Will she comment on the impact of child maintenance payments on rent assessments in particular? Action on that issue could be taken straight away. Such payments should not be seen as means but as income to assist in raising a child or children. That is what they are for and how they should be treated. In addition, we should remove the condition whereby parents must prove they have sought maintenance before being able to get the one-parent family or jobseeker's transitional payment. Again, that should not be the case. These are two measures that could be taken immediately and would make a difference. Is there anything else that can be done?

Looking at existing models is important. On three occasions, we have brought forward proposals based on the model that is in place in the North. It is not perfect but I am not sure we will find a perfect model. The job of work has to be to find an existing model, take the lessons from it and then build the best model we can.

There is a need for reform within the Department of Social Protection and its liable relatives unit. That unit really is only there to recoup the State's costs arising from the one-parent family payment. That is slightly disturbing because it is not what it should be about. It should always be about the child and recouping costs to assist in rearing that child.

Whatever service is established, which I hope will be done, enforcement is absolutely key.

We need strong links to Revenue. Where payment is not made, it needs to be able to be taken from welfare payments, wages or wherever other means necessary. There is no point in having a service if we do not have adequate enforcement to ensure payment is made. The problem at the moment is that in many cases it is not actually made.

In previous years we have not been able to get a figure for the cost of establishing a child maintenance service. I gather because of the work done by the review group, a figure is now there. We were given a figure for our alternative budget this year of €2.3 million. That is the initial establishment cost. Obviously, after that, not everybody will need to use the service, so I do not see the cost being anywhere near as high in future. Could anything else be done immediately while we wait for this child maintenance review group report and hopefully the establishment which, unfortunately, will take time?