Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on Sinn Féin's motion on a child maintenance service. I thank my colleague, Deputy Brady, for moving it. I am glad that many Members have spoken in support of it.

I will start at the end of the speech by the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, and work backwards. It was ironic that he stated: "No one party has a monopoly on caring". No one said that anyone had a monopoly on caring, but everyone should be part of the monopoly on doing the right thing. This motion is about doing the right thing and assisting people. It does not matter what colour, class, creed or religion people are. When they are in dire straits, with poverty being one of the main factors, we must do the right thing. It is not about who wins the battle on the floor tonight. It is about who wins outside the Chamber, those being, the people who need our help.

Fine Gael Members are a bit disingenuous in saying that they do not oppose the motion but they will not support it. I do not know what colour they want. Is it black, white, blue or red?

I wish to focus on the importance of the motion and how effective it could be in helping everybody. Given my background in the mental health area, many lone parent families come to my office week in and week out. There is a perception outside the House that lone parents are all female, but there are as many males coming in with two or three young children and they are absolutely broken. Their jobs are being affected because they cannot afford childcare. They do not know how the system works. Nothing seems to be right. Many speakers referred to the Courts Service. That is another thing that is going to break down the family unit. Children can tap into what is happening. They know when their mother is hurting or their father is frustrated. They wonder why they are in their nanny's all the time. It is a minuscule move to do the right thing and I cannot understand why Fine Gael is not supporting it because it is about doing the right thing to assist people.

Another tsunami is coming down the road. Given the current crisis and the fact that people are living in hotels and other such places, children who have been born into such environments are now two or three years of age. They cannot eat properly because parents do not have the ability to cook in their accommodation. Those children are not on solids. They are on soft foods all their lives. One, two or three years on, they are not developing properly. We want to do the right thing to improve people's quality of life. Taking as much stress as we can out of people's lives will improve the situation. The benefit is that the future generations, although they are currently being damaged, will at least have a chance of having some quality of life.

Reference was made to the courts. I am very worried about the system because it is broken. A judge can make an order for maintenance in the court but that does not mean an individual will make the payments. Maintenance can be taken as means, which impairs people. The Government is taking money off people twofold if maintenance is not being paid and a lone parent does not get the full social welfare entitlement. That breaks down society. I appeal to Fine Gael tonight to think about that. It is not about scoring political points. It is about doing the right thing. That is what we came into this House to do. We have spoken many times in this House about the most vulnerable people. The Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, can correct me if I am wrong but the motion is a practical solution to improve people's lives, and if the Members cannot support a measure to help the quality of people's lives when they are struggling, they should not be in the Chamber because they are not representing the people they should be representing.

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