Marie Moloney (Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I wish to address a couple of matters. I am of the firm belief that nobody should be better off unemployed than working, yet it appears that is the case. On the one hand the Department recognises the importance of having a parent in the home until the age of 12 by awarding a homemaker’s credit to a parent who chooses to be at home to look after the children, but, on the other, we say there is no need for a parent to be at home when a child has reached the age of seven and that the parent can go out to work. Is it possible that a one-parent family could get a transition payment and a half rate carer’s payment? It has been said that they do not have to be available for work. In that case, would the transition payment and the half-rate carer's payment be available to them under the new scheme?

If a domiciliary care allowance has been granted to a parent for a child, he or she is exempt, but what about a parent who has a child over 16 on disability allowance? A 16 year old is only a child. Likewise, what about someone who is caring for an adult? Why is he or she not exempt just because he or she does not have a domiciliary care allowance? Surely the same rules should apply to anyone who is caring?

In her presentation, Ms Bayliss, mentioned the liable relatives. That is something that is always left out of discussions when we talk about one-parent families. Nobody ever seems to think there is another parent of the children. That seems to go amiss generally, but reference was made to it. Could the officials let us know what are the statistics in terms of chasing up people for maintenance, and what happens when the parent living with the child transfers to a transition payment? Does the liability on the other parent fall at that stage or will the Department still chase him or her for maintenance?

The elephant in the room is child care. It is the most important issue to address not just for lone parents, but for working families. Child care in this country is unaffordable for every family and the matter must be addressed. Could the officials indicate whether there is ongoing discussion between the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Department of Social Protection and, if there is, could we have an update on when we will move to safe and affordable child care in this country?