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

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The child maintenance review group was established in 2020 to prepare a report on the current treatment within the Department of Social Protection of child maintenance payments, the current provisions relating to the liable relatives regarding child maintenance and the establishment of a child maintenance agency.

The Government accepted the group's recommendations in regard to the social welfare system, and I am pleased to say that, pending the introduction of the necessary legislation, my Department has already implemented the some of the recommended changes on an administrative basis. When the legislation is passed, child maintenance payments will be disregarded in the means test for social welfare payments. This measure will mean that many lone parents currently on reduced rates of payment will see their payment increase. It will also mean that some additional lone parents will qualify for a payment. It is estimated that this measure will be of direct benefit to approximately 16,000 lone parents, at a cost of approximately €10 million per year.

My Department is also removing the efforts to seek maintenance requirement from one-parent family and jobseeker's transitional payments. This requirement often involved lone parents having to go to court to seek a maintenance order. This change will remove a potential additional stress for them, as well as helping to reduce the burden on our courts system. In addition, the liable relative provision has been discontinued. This means that my Department will no longer seek to recoup a portion of claim costs from the non-resident parent. I want to be very clear that removing these provisions does not replace or supersede the primary responsibility of parents to maintain their children.

These are very significant reforms of the social welfare system which will be of great benefit to lone parents. Introducing these changes requires amendments to primary and secondary legislation, the details of which are currently being examined. The reforms will also necessitate changes to some of my Department's systems, application forms and processes.

My officials are working on advancing the legislative provisions and associated issues at present to ensure implementation as early as possible. In the meantime, on an administrative basis, my Department is not requiring people to make efforts to seek maintenance from their child's other parent and the liable relative provisions are not being applied to new claims for one-parent family payments.

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