Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. On the amendment and the proposal, this day six months will bring us to the end of August. At that time, the Dáil will be in recess and will not return until the end of September, and we will then be into the budgetary cycle.

This report was due at the end of last year. It is now, we are told, to be published by Easter. If it is published by Easter, which I expect it will be, there should be no excuse or reason to delay this until more or less the end of next year. The other issue is that will have implications for the budget. Should this review group report at Easter that we need a statutory child maintenance service, whatever form it may take and whatever country we make look to mirror, we will need to see steps for the establishment of that service taken in the next budget rather than having to wait another year. Lone parents and their families have waited long enough.

The Minister of State referred to the one-parent family payment and the jobseeker's transition payment and the differences in that regard. However, he did not say why the liable relative unit does not seek a contribution when the lone parent moves on to the jobseeker's transition payment, why maintenance is being treated as household income when it should be taken as income for the child and why it is proposed to continue to pressure lone parents into court in order to seek maintenance. I presume the Minister of State does not believe it is right that lone parents should have to go to court in the first instance to seek maintenance in order to receive a social welfare payment. That is extraordinary; it should not happen. We should not in the first instance need a child maintenance review group to tell us that that is very wrong.

The Minister of State referred to the so-called adjustment whereby a contribution is sought. As I said, this is basically the Department of Social Protection seeking to recoup its own costs as regards the one-parent family payment in that the level of the payment is reduced and not, as the Minister of State put it, adjusted.

The Minister of State also spoke about the disregard of €95 for housing costs. When rents in Dublin are €2,000 per month or €500 per week, again, that disregard is totally inadequate. Furthermore, the Minister of State mentioned the financial contribution that is made towards the State. The State should be seeking a contribution for maintenance for the benefit of the child or children and not to recoup its own costs.

The Minister of State recalled the significant reforms to the one-parent family payment. I recall that those significant reforms had a devastating impact on lone parent families. The Minister of State does not have to take our word for that. We saw it a number of years ago in an amendment through social welfare legislation on the basis of an Indecon report which showed that the significant reforms had a major impact on lone parent families and it put more of them into deprivation and poverty. That was the impact of the significant reforms, as the Minister of State referred to them. That was proven.

The Minister of State went on to speak about the importance of allowing time for the child maintenance review group to do its work. As I said, the issue in terms of this legislation has been going on since 2018. There has indeed been plenty of time. The Minister of State also said that we need to wait to see if there is a case or not for a child maintenance agency in Ireland. How can we need a maintenance review group to tell us if it is right to send lone parents into courtrooms in order to seek maintenance to allow them to keep a weekly social welfare payment which, in some cases, is the only weekly payment they get? We know they are living in poverty and we know the deprivation they experience. We should not have needed a maintenance review group to tell us that and nor should we have needed a maintenance review group to tell us that child maintenance should not be treated as household means. That should not continue.

While the amendment in regard to the six months, which, clearly, the Government is not going to move on, is disappointing, I would ask that should the report be ready at Easter, as is expected, the Government would look at it immediately rather than in August or September, which is basically the end of the year. If it recommends that we need a statutory child maintenance agency then we need to move on that in the next budget and not kick the can down the road. I ask the Minister of State to bring to the Minister my request that between and now and receipt of the review group report pressure would be taken off lone parents in terms of them being forced into courtrooms to seek that maintenance. We could do that without waiting on the maintenance review group report because that is wrong and it should not happen. We should be able to do that regardless.

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