Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. There is a legal responsibility on parents, whether married or unmarried, to maintain dependent children in accordance with their means. The legislation on liable relatives is not to be confused or conflated with the payment of maintenance. Under the liable relative provisions, the Department is not arranging maintenance but ensuring, where possible, that where a one-parent family payment is in place the other parent makes a financial contribution towards the cost to the State of providing that support.

This recoupment can be done in two ways. First, the liable relative can pay an amount to my Department directly. Alternatively, the liable relative can make the payment to the one-parent family payment recipient. Where this happens, it will be assessed as means and the level of the one-parent family payment may be adjusted as a result. The fact that the liable relative provisions do not extend to the jobseeker’s transitional payment has led some to suggest that the obligation on the non-resident parent to pay child maintenance ceases when the child turns seven and the other parent moves from the one-parent family payment to jobseeker’s transitional payment.

This is not the case and people are advised of this at the time. Furthermore the liability to maintain family provisions contained in social welfare legislation are separate to and do not negate or supersede parents' obligations under family law.

The Government established the child maintenance review group to review certain issues in respect of child maintenance. The group is chaired by former Circuit Court Judge Catherine Murphy and includes legal, policy and academic professionals as well as officials from the Departments of Social Protection and Justice. The group is examining the liable relative provisions under its terms of reference. I expect to receive its report before Easter and look forward to considering its conclusions and recommendations.

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