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

Lone parents will get considerable support as part of the social welfare package that we announced only two weeks ago. For example, a lone parent with two children will get two double payments of the one-parent family payment - that will be €416 - before Christmas. If they are a working family, they will get the €500 working family payment. They will get an extra €280 on child benefit. They will get a €12 increase in the one-parent family payment from 1 January. That is an extra €624 over a full year. That is an extra €1,820 going into their pockets as a result of this budget. Over a year, that works out as an extra €35 per week.

I am aware that Deputy Kerrane has a strong interest in this area regarding child maintenance review. The Deputy has raised it with me on a number of occasions. In fairness to the group, which was chaired by Judge Catherine Murphy, it took 18 months or so to look at this matter. They went through all the issues in great detail and they invited submissions from all the stakeholders. It is clear from their report that they gave a lot of consideration to all of the different issues. There are many issues here, both in the social protection space and also in that relating to the Department of Justice. The group looked at all of those issues and it gave them detailed consideration. I have given the report detailed consideration over the past few months. I will act on the report. I want to do that.

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