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

I thank all the Deputies for their contributions. I acknowledge Deputy Ó Cuív's commitment to the means test and the need to continually review it. It is something he has raised with me on many occasions. I look forward to receiving the report on the means test shortly.

We all know that lone parents are a particularly vulnerable group, which is why I am very pleased to bring forward this legislation. I thank Deputies for their support. As a result of the provisions in the Bill, my Department will no longer assess child maintenance payments in the means test for social welfare schemes. As I mentioned earlier, this will be of direct benefit to an estimated 16,000 lone parents, at a cost of some €10 million a year. Some people will receive a higher payment while others will qualify for a payment that they would not have if we did not make these changes.

The "liability to maintain family" provisions in social welfare legislation are being revoked by this legislation. This means the Department will no longer seek to recoup a portion of claims costs from the non-resident parent when a person is in receipt of the one-parent family payment.

As Deputies will be aware, under family law, parents have obligations regarding the maintenance of their children. Nothing in this Bill changes or undermines any of those obligations. I, too, acknowledge the vast majority of parents who meet those obligations.

On an administrative basis, the liable relative provisions have not been applied to new claims for one-parent family payment since late 2022 when the Government decided to revoke the provisions. In addition, last year I signed regulations to remove the requirements for recipients of the one-parent family payment and jobseeker’s transition payment to make efforts to seek maintenance from the child’s other parent.

This means there is now no question of a person having to go to court just to satisfy an eligibility requirement for one of these payments. In making these amendments, we are decoupling child maintenance from the social welfare system. There are three significant changes that will have a positive impact on the lives of lone parents. My colleague, the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, is bringing forward reforms in the family law area that will also be of benefit to lone parents. Taken together, these represent a significant suite of reforms across the two systems that will address concerns that have been raised over the years.

As I explained in my opening remarks, I will bring forward amendments relating to the supports available for the beneficiaries of temporary protection. These changes will be more closely aligned to other EU member states. The impact of these amendments will be that new arrivals from Ukraine staying in designated State-provided accommodation will receive a weekly payment of €38.80. The Government has decided this and bringing it forward through this Bill is the fastest legislative vehicle to get the measures enacted. People will have the opportunity on Committee Stage to raise issues in this regard.

Some other issues were raised as well, including setting up a child maintenance agency. The Child Maintenance Review Group did not reach a consensus on this point. The Minister for Justice, however, has announced significant reforms to make the family courts system more accessible and more family-friendly. We need to see how those reforms bed in. As part of these reforms, the Department of Justice undertook a review of the enforcement of child maintenance orders. The Minister published that report last week. It contains 26 recommendations, including measures to examine how we can strengthen the enforcement of child maintenance payments via attachment orders and so on. The answer to all of this is that if people are supposed to pay, they should pay. I would like to see such payments deducted at source if people are working. People should just get on with it and stop messing about.

The Minister wishes to progress these proposals as quickly as possible. There have been some calls for Ireland to introduce a similar-styled child maintenance service to what is in place in the UK and Northern Ireland. It is important to say that an independent report from the national audit office in the UK found that since the agency was established there the estimated proportion of separated families without any child maintenance arrangements has increased from 25% in 2011-12 to 44% in 2019-20. The amount of unpaid maintenance owed to parents increased by more than £1 million weekly to a total of £440 million as of October 2021. Outstanding arrears will grow indefinitely and are forecast to reach £1 billion by March 2031 at the current rates. If we look at this, we can see that there are an awful lot of complaints about that service in the UK and how it is working. In fairness, I can see, therefore, why the review group found it difficult to reach a consensus on this. The last thing we want to do is to spend a lot of taxpayers' money and waste a lot of time and then end up back where we were at square one.

I just wish to also address another matter. Deputy Boyd Barrett asked about the use of an electricity usage threshold for the electricity credits. I will have to refer this to the Department of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I was not aware of this and I do not think that it was the intention but I will refer this query back to the Minister.

Deputy Paul Murphy made comments about social welfare inspectors visiting houses. My Department repeatedly sought details of those alleged cases that were reported in the media in the context of anonymous sources but that information was never provided to us. None of those media reports has ever been backed up by facts. I just want to put this on the record because the social welfare inspectors in my Department do not have an easy job sometimes. As far as I am concerned, however, they do a good job. I just wish to ensure that people are aware of this. I have heard those allegations previously and I do not want to have the good name of our social welfare inspectors tarnished in any way.

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