Ms Louise Bayliss:

Enforcement is key and that is what is lacking. The courts operate on the basis that there is compliance and if there is not, it is up to the lone parent to pursue it. There should be options which are not there at the moment. For instance, for the attachment of earnings it is necessary to know who the employer is. A way to circumvent that is to change jobs and then the lone parent is back at the end of it. We know their PPS numbers. Why can it not be an attachment to a PPS number instead of an attachment of earnings? It would mean that wherever they go whether they are self-employed or whether they are changing jobs, the lone parent does not need to find out who the employer is or where have they gone if they change. Even having to know the address for the summons is a real barrier.

I welcome that the Deputy has mentioned housing, which is a major issue for many lone parents, especially in the case of domestic abuse. Lone parents may get a court order requiring the mortgage or the rent to be paid, which is a very progressive thing. However, unfortunately the Department of Social protection will not see that as the mortgage payment; it sees it as a cash payment into the hands of people. There is hypocrisy that the State would support a lone parent through rent supplement to leave the family home but will then assess the mortgage payment and bar her from taking social welfare payments to maintain herself and her children.

A housing disregard was introduced in 1997 to help parents in that situation. That was introduced at £75 in 1997. That payment is now €95.23. It is not reflective of the current housing market and is driving lone parents in domestic abuse situations from the family home and into a private rental market which costs the State more money. Somebody might be entitled to a HAP of €2,000 and yet where there is a court order ordering the mortgage of €600 or €700 to be paid, the Department is coming in and assessing it. That is something that could be done overnight and would make an enormous difference to lone parents struggling at the moment.