Mr. R?n?n Hession:

I thank the joint committee for the invitation to attend. I have responsibility for working age income supports in the Department and I am joined by my colleagues whom the Cathaoirleach already introduced.

In line with the programme for Government commitment, the Government established a child maintenance review group to examine certain issues in relation to child maintenance in Ireland. The group's terms of reference were to consider and make recommendations on the current treatment of child maintenance payments in the social welfare system, the current provisions regarding liable relatives and the establishment of a child maintenance agency in Ireland. The report of the child maintenance review group was published in November 2022. The Government has approved changes to implement the group’s recommendations regarding social welfare as follows. Child maintenance payments will no longer be included in social welfare means tests, the “efforts to seek maintenance” requirement for certain payments will no longer apply and the liable relatives provisions operated by our Department should no longer apply.

There was no consensus among the group's members in relation to the establishment of a child maintenance agency. This matter falls under the remit of the Department of Justice and is not within the scope of the draft legislation before the committee today. Since the publication of the report, however, several measures have been brought forward by the Minister for Justice to reform the family law system.

In terms of the three main reforms arising from the review group report, the combined effect will be to decouple social welfare from child maintenance. First, the Department will no longer assess child maintenance payments in the means tests for social welfare schemes. This will be of direct benefit to an estimated 16,000 lone parents at a cost of some €10 million a year. In some cases, this will mean that people will receive a higher payment. In other cases, it will mean that people will now qualify for a payment for the first time.

Second, we are removing the requirement for recipients of the one-parent family payment and jobseeker’s transitional payment to make efforts to seek maintenance from their child’s other parent. This requirement often involved lone parents having to go to court to seek a maintenance order so this change removes a potential additional stress for them as well as helping to reduce the burden on our courts system. This is a significant benefit for lone parents and something for which representative groups have been calling.

Third, the liable relative provisions will no longer be applied in respect of the one-parent family payment. This means the Department will no longer seek to recoup a portion of claim costs from the non-resident parent in these cases. I should clarify that under the liable relative provisions, the Department is not arranging maintenance but ensuring, where possible, that where there is a one-parent family payment in place, the other parent makes a financial contribution towards the cost to the State of providing that support. In 2022, expenditure on the one-parent family payment was approximately €614 million. The cash receipts to the Department as a result of activity carried out under the liable relative provisions amounted to less than €400,000. Removing the liable relative provisions does not replace or supersede the primary responsibility of parents to maintain their children.

Pending the introduction of the necessary legislation, the Department has already implemented some of the recommended changes on an administrative basis. We are no longer applying the efforts to seek maintenance requirement to one-parent family payment and jobseeker's transitional payment. This had been done on an administrative basis since the end of last year. However, the Minister has since signed a regulation to remove this requirement from the statutory provisions. In addition, on an administrative basis, the liable relative provisions are not being applied to new claims for the one-parent family payment.

I will now outline the main provisions of the draft Social Welfare (Child Maintenance and Liable Relatives Provisions) Bill, which will amend the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005. Head 1 provides for the deletion of references to Part 12 of the Act, the liability to maintain family, from the definition of "social welfare inspector" in section 2(1) and from the interpretation of "liable relative" in section 2(7). As a result, a social welfare inspector will no longer have any role under Part 12 of the Act which is being repealed. These amendments are required as a consequence of the repeal of Part 12, as set out in head 4, which is the main repealing provision.

Head 2 relates to social welfare inspectors. It removes several references to Part 12 of the Act, liability to maintain family, from section 250 and as a result social welfare inspectors will have no role under Part 12 which, as I have explained, is being repealed.

Head 3 relates to decisions by deciding officers and removes a reference to Part 12 of the Act from section 300(2). As a result, deciding officers will have no role under Part 12.

Head 4 repeals Part 12, liability to maintain family. This encompasses sections 344 to 358, inclusive, which all refer to the obligations of the liable parent to maintain the family and deals with the District Court and attachment orders. This is the substantive amendment required to implement the review group recommendation on liable relatives.

Head 5 inserts a new definition of "maintenance payments" into Part 1 of Schedule 3, the purpose of which is to ensure that child maintenance payments are no longer assessed as means for the purposes of any social welfare means test.

Head 6 reflects the exclusion of child maintenance payments in the new definition of "maintenance payments" while ensuring that the housing disregard continues to apply to any other maintenance payments. This applies to the means testing provisions for the wide range of schemes listed in this head. These amendments are consequential on the change to the definition of "maintenance payments" as provided in head 5.

These changes will decouple child maintenance from social welfare and will provide material benefits for the lone parents affected. We are happy to assist the joint committee with any questions.