Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have so many questions that I will not get them all into three minutes. I might hit up all the representatives over the next few weeks to follow up on it all. I will stay away from some of the questions I had on looking at the percentage of care as well as the percentage of cost and income. A parent with access may be providing a lot of care for three to four days a week, or a family member is, yet that parent is still the one liable. I might come back separately on that for advices on the legislation.

I have an interest in marginalised groups and while they have come up a lot, women and families in such groups are definitely not, in any shape or form, the only ones being impacted by this. That is why Revenue is a good place for it. I have a concern, however, about the children of men in prison, especially children from vulnerable or marginalised communities, for whom the conversation has not really been a starter. There are men are in prison for anywhere between six months to 20 years who have children in homes that will never gain recompense from the State and will not come under the Department of Social Protection. How do we deal with those vulnerable families that will never be able to access maintenance? There is also the issue of young families where the parents have died but were not married.

I have friends whose fathers have taken their own lives but they were not married and so the widow's pension cannot be accessed. Does anybody have any solutions for these two extremely vulnerable groups, which include children, in terms of access to adequate care that will have to be driven by the State, not the other parent?