Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Donnelly had spoken on amendment No. 6 and the Minister was to respond but I will recap briefly. The amendment relates to the single person child care tax credit, which replaced the one parent family tax credit last year. As a result of the change in last year's budget, some parents were out of pocket to the tune of €2,500 - €1,650 by virtue of the loss of the credit and a further €800 by virtue of the loss of the additional band at the lower rate. The essence of this amendment is to allow the primary carer, who does not have a sufficient taxation liability to absorb the tax credit in full, to transfer any unused portion of the tax credit to a qualifying secondary carer.

As I said last night, the principle of there being only one tax credit in respect of the child is honoured, because that was the fundamental shift the Minister made last year, but this recognises the reality that when many relationships break up, there is the primary carer and the secondary carer, who also plays a very important role in the upbringing of the child, who pays maintenance payments in the vast majority of cases and who is heavily involved in the day-to-day upbringing of the child and deserves recognition for that role. It is a very modest proposal and might present some technical difficulties for the Revenue but if the will was there, it would be possible to implement this.

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