Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 36, lines 5 and 6, to delete all words from and including "section" in line 5 down to and including "1996" in line 6 and substitute "section 178(1)(a)".

The Social Welfare Act 1996 provided for the introduction of the one-parent family payment which subsumed a variety of schemes applicable at the time to persons rearing children alone. That Act also repealed the provisions governing the deserted wives' benefit, deserted wives' allowance and prisoners' wives allowance schemes. In addition, the 1996 Act incorporated a saver clause which allowed for the continued payment of deserted wives' benefit, deserted wives' allowance or prisoners' wives allowance for as long as the recipient retained a continuous entitlement under the relevant scheme.

On Committee Stage, an amendment was introduced to incorporate this saver provision into the text of the Bill. As a consequence of this amendment, a small number of references in the Bill require adjustment and these amendments provide for the necessary reference updating.

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