Ms Louise Bayliss:

I might add one further statement. I think it is something Ms Kiernan and NOPFA fully agree with. There is a vulnerability when you are depending on social protection and the fact Department of Social Protection officials are not trauma informed. Not all lone parents are domestic abuse survivors but all domestic abuse survivors with children become lone parents. That trauma is not recognised by Department of Social Protection officials and staff. There is also another thing about the financial vulnerability of lone parents. One of the things that comes up so often that we come across is where a parent goes to collect a social protection payment and we have to bear in mind that they have no financial cushion whatsoever. They could be down to their last €1 or €2. They go to the post office to collect their payment and the payment is not there. That is not recorded anywhere.

There is a fear that could happen to a parent when they go up to collect the money but it is not there. They then have to trek to the Intreo office, wherever that is, sit down and be told "Oh, we moved your payment because we wanted to get in contact with you.". I do not know about anybody else here but if my employers need to talk to me, they send me an email or call me. My salary is in my bank account, regardless of that. We need to start recognising the financial vulnerability there is. If a person goes to the post office and their payment is not there, that traumatises them for a very long time afterwards. I had to raise that point.