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

In line with the programme for Government commitment, the Government established a child maintenance review group to examine certain issues relating to child maintenance in Ireland. The group's terms of reference were to consider and make recommendations on the current treatment of child maintenance payments in the Department of Social Protection, the current provisions regarding liable relatives managed by the Department, and the establishment of a child maintenance agency in Ireland. The report of the Child Maintenance Review Group was published in November 2022. There was no consensus among the group on the establishment of a child maintenance agency. This matter falls under the remit of the Department of Justice and it is not within the scope of this Bill.

Since publication of the report of the Child Maintenance Review Group, a number of measures have been brought forward by the Minister for Justice to reform the family law system in respect of child maintenance. The report set out three recommendations relating to child maintenance and the social welfare system: that child maintenance payments will no longer be included in social welfare means tests; that the efforts to seek maintenance requirement for certain payments will no longer apply; and that the liable relatives provisions operated by the Department of Social Protection should no longer apply. The Government has accepted all three recommendations.

Last year, I signed regulations to remove the requirement for recipients of the one-parent family payment and jobseeker’s transitional payment to make efforts to seek maintenance from the child’s other parent. This requirement often involved lone parents having to go to court to seek a maintenance order, so this change removes a potential additional stress for them, as well as helping to reduce the burden on our courts system. This is a significant benefit for lone parents and something that representative groups have been calling for. The Bill sets out the legislative provisions required to implement the other two recommendations. The combined effect of these measures will be to decouple the social welfare system from child maintenance.

As Members will be aware, to qualify for any social assistance payment, the applicant must satisfy a means test. A person’s means, as calculated by my Department, must be below a certain level to qualify for a means-tested payment. When a person does qualify for a payment, their rate of payment will depend on the level of their means. Means currently includes all capital, earnings, and other income, including maintenance payments, whether child or spousal maintenance.

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Some income sources, such as child benefit, are disregarded in the means test. There is also a capital disregard and other disregards that apply in different ways across schemes.

As a result of the provisions in this Bill, my Department will no longer assess child maintenance payments in the means tests for social welfare schemes. This will be of direct benefit to an estimated 16,000 lone parents at a cost of €10 million a year. In some cases, this will mean that people receive a higher payment. In others, it will mean that people qualify for a payment for the first time. I only have to think back to my days working in a credit union, where I met many parents who relied on child maintenance. I saw it on different occasions; some weeks, the child maintenance was paid, and other weeks, it was missed. The person who suffers most in that situation is the child, and I do not want to see that happen again. That is why I believe this particular element of the Bill, excluding child maintenance payments from the means test, will make a huge difference to the lives of many families.

Under family law, parents have obligations regarding the maintenance of their children. The “liability to maintain family” provisions in social welfare legislation are separate to these obligations. They do not negate or supersede family law obligations in any way. Where a person is in receipt of one-parent family payment, the liable relative provisions provide the Department with a legislative basis to assess the child’s other parent. The Department can then issue a determination order for that other parent to pay a contribution towards the costs of the scheme. These provisions are being revoked by this Bill. This means that the Department will no longer seek to recoup a portion of claim costs from the non-resident parent in these cases.

On an administrative basis, the liable relative provisions have not been applied to new claims for one-parent family payment since the Government decided to revoke the provisions in late 2022. I should clarify that under the liable relative provisions, the Department is not arranging maintenance but ensuring, where possible, that where there is a one-parent family payment in place, the other parent makes a financial contribution towards the cost to the State of providing that support.

In 2022, expenditure on the one-parent family payment was approximately €614 million. The cash receipts to the Department as a result of activity carried out under the liable relative provisions amounted to less than €400,000. I should again emphasise that removing the liable relative provisions does not replace or supersede the primary responsibility of parents to maintain their children.

The general scheme of the Bill was referred for pre-legislative scrutiny to the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands. I thank the committee for its deliberations during pre-legislative scrutiny and for its report.

I will now go through the Bill section by section. Each section amends the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, as amended.

Section 1 provides for the definition of relevant Acts which are referred to in the Bill. It defines the “Act of 2015” as meaning the “Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2015”. It also defines the “Principal Act” as meaning the “Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005”.

Section 2 amends the definition of “social welfare inspector” and the interpretation of “liable relative,” to remove references to Part 12 of the Act. Part 12 sets out the “Liability to Maintain Family” provisions and is being repealed under section 5 of this Bill.

Section 3 removes a reference to Part 12 of the Act from the provisions relating to the role and duties of a social welfare inspector. As a result of these amendments in sections 2 and 3, a social welfare inspector will no longer have any role regarding liable relatives.

Section 4 removes a reference to Part 12 of the Act from the provisions setting out the role and duties of deciding officers. As a result, deciding officers in the Department of Social Protection will have no role regarding liable relatives.

Section 5 is the substantial amendment which repeals Part 12 of the Act which sets out the “Liability to Maintain Family” provisions. As a result, my Department will no longer seek to recoup a contribution from the other parent where a one-parent family payment is in place. Once again, I want to stress that removing these provisions does not replace or supersede the primary responsibility of parents to maintain their children.

Section 6 provides for a number of amendments to ensure that child maintenance payments are not assessed in the means tests for various social welfare schemes. It inserts a new term, “maintenance payment made to or in respect of a qualified child”, into the Act and defines this to mean “any maintenance payment made to or in respect of a qualified child that may be prescribed”. This change will mean that my Department will have to distinguish between child maintenance and other maintenance payments which a person might receive. It is my intention to provide for this distinction by way of regulations made under this provision.

The section further provides for consequential amendments to the rules governing the calculation of means as set out in Schedule 3 to the Act. As a result of this change, child maintenance payments will no longer be assessed in the means tests for a range of schemes, including in relation to jobseekers, pensions and, importantly, one-parent family payment. Section 6 also defines the “Act of 2022” as meaning the “Social Welfare Act 2022”. Section 7 provides for the Short Title, construction and commencement.

As Deputies will be aware, the EU temporary protection directive has been extended to March 2025. Ireland has welcomed more than 103,000 arrivals from Ukraine, with 76,000 people currently living in State accommodation and 58,000 in fully serviced accommodation. This relates to my intention to bring forward amendments to the EU temporary protection directive. Ireland has welcomed 2.3% of those fleeing Ukraine who have come to the EU since the war, which is a significant response, and weekly arrivals remain high. Following extensive discussions, the Government has decided to amend the support and accommodation provided. This will more closely align us with other EU member states. We will, of course, continue to meet Ireland's obligations under the temporary protection directive.

The new arrangements will involve the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth introducing a more time-limited 90-day accommodation offering for newly arriving beneficiaries. In addition, the current equivalence with Irish citizens in terms of accessing social welfare benefits will be removed while still meeting the standard set out in the directive. As a result, beneficiaries of the directive who are living in designated accommodation centres will not be eligible for social assistance payments, and will instead receive a payment of €38 per week, which is the equivalent of the expenses allowance paid to those in direct provision.

Implementing these changes will require legislative amendments. The Government has approved the drafting of the necessary amendments for inclusion in this Bill. I want to signal to the House that I intend to bring forward the necessary legislative amendments to give effect to these changes as part of this Bill. This is to ensure that the changes can take effect as soon as possible. Officials from the relevant Department are working closely with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and the Office of the Attorney General.

I believe the measures contained in this Bill will have a positive impact on the lives of lone parents. They represent changes that many people, including Members of this House, in particular Deputy Kerrane, have been calling for over a number of years. They will help to tackle child poverty and make the child maintenance system in Ireland fairer, more humane and more effective. I, therefore, commend the Bill to the House and I look forward to Deputies' contributions.

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