Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I was speaking, it occurred to me that it is related to a means test but is probably not strictly speaking a means test issue. The Minister is not here and Mr. Egan cannot commit on her behalf, but my main request is to have a meeting on this with the Minister.

Kinship carers are entitled to the guardian's payment, non-contributory, on the basis that there is parental abandonment. The problem is that it is very strictly defined and that, operationally, financial contributions by the natural parent or birth parent can often be considered to contradict whether there is full parental abandonment or not. It is not strictly about the whole sum of money that is coming into the household and the means test in that regard but it is related to the means test because if there is money coming from a particular place, the amount itself, whether big or small, is immaterial. Practically speaking, it can mean the Department, probably at deciding officer level, has treated it as a contradiction of parental abandonment. Obviously, care needs to be taken that people are not trying to cod the system and so on, but typically that is not the case and we have provided a number of practical examples of people who have been caught by this and the amounts of money involved have been relatively small.

As I said, my primary request is for a meeting. There was previously a meeting at deciding officer level with Kinship Care Ireland, which is a part of Treoir, at which the deciding officers indicated they were unaware of any change. This occurred in recent months, even though the legislation was progressing at that time. The operational changes are now in place and the legislation has passed. I am not expecting Mr. Egan to have a comprehensive answer. He probably understands what the issue is. I request a meeting with the Minister so that we can resolve it because it can be resolved.