Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this legislation. Time and again, all of us who look at welfare realise the single most disadvantaged group in society are lone parents. Budget after budget, all the evidence is that is so. I also have a view, which is well known here, that means testing can be very crippling because people are trying to get above the basic payment the State pays. Let us call the €220 plus the child dependant allowance what it is: pure subsistence. We should, therefore, hope most people parenting alone have more than that. We also have to stress that not only does this affect adults but also children and the next generation. When we look at intergenerational disadvantage, we find that children who come from less well-off backgrounds start at a disadvantage from day one and, therefore, we are affecting two generations in the one go. Anything that improves this is a good idea.

We spent a little time talking about the liable relatives provision. When you read the whole brief, however, it is one of these great cases where the total income is €400,000 and the cost of collecting the income is €590,000 or something. It would actually cost money to have this provision and the whole thing was worthless. I applaud the Department for just getting rid of it, but in case anybody out there watching thinks the State is making a massive sacrifice, it is saving a few hundred thousand euro. In the greater scheme of things in welfare it will not make much difference. It is just a tidying-up job.

The more important part is how the means for maintenance payments will be assessed. That is the more radical change. I welcome the idea that child dependant money will not be assessed but some very comprehensive way is needed of making sure this differentiation between what goes to the parent and what goes to the child is made. At the end of the day, it will not be the seven-year-old child who will be handling any money that is given to that child.