Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I have acknowledged that this area is in need of a serious overhaul. Only 14% of single fathers — by and large the maintenance comes from fathers — have had determination orders issued against them. No contributions are due from a further 49% who, although they were working, their income was deemed to be low. Some 13% of liable relatives are on social welfare and it has been deemed that they can make no contribution. A further 11% of liable relatives cannot be traced.

In terms of the point made by Deputy Stanton, the mother — in most cases it is the mother who lives with the children — is in receipt of a lone parent's allowance. That is her allowance. If the Department receives a contribution from the father, that money is not passed on but remains in the Department. It is considered as a contribution by the father towards the lone parent's allowance which the Department has paid. I am investigating the matter.

Deputy Stanton referred to 50% of a payment, which is a slightly different matter in that in cases where the payment is paid directly by the father to the mother, the mother keeps the whole payment but she is allowed to disregard half of that payment in any assessment of her entitlement to social welfare. This area is in need of a serious overhaul. It is important that fathers would become more involved and would make payments in more cases.

Many fathers do make payments currently but it is apparent from the statistics I gave that not nearly enough of them do so. The Department's rationale for collecting the funds directly is to hold them accountable in some way. I accept that work remains to be done in this area because the idea that money received by the Department is offset against a lone parent's allowance does not really make the connection I want to make between the mother, child and father. We must work out a better way of doing that.

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