Ms Sinéad Lucey:

It will always be the parent who will be the applicant for the money. Under our social welfare system, there are no payments that go directly to children such. I refer here to child benefit and payments like that. It will always be the parent who will apply on behalf of themselves and their children.

In the Supreme Court case - and obviously that is the genesis of this general scheme - the circumstance of a cohabitant with children was specifically looked at, and it did not go beyond that. That is why we welcome the fact that in the general scheme, the payment is not wholly tied to having children. Cohabitants without children would have an entitlement as well. That probably goes beyond what would be required by the Supreme Court judgment.