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

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The guardian’s payment, contributory, and guardian’s payment, non-contributory, are, respectively, social insurance and social assistance payments made to a person caring for a child where that child is defined as an orphan under the social welfare legislation.

A child is considered an orphan if they are under 18, or 22 if in full-time education, and both parents are deceased; or one parent is either dead or unknown or has abandoned and failed to provide for the child and the other parent is unknown or has abandoned and failed to provide for the child.

The guardian’s payment, non-contributory, is a means-tested payment which is based on the means of the child. The means of the guardian, including any maintenance payments paid to him or her in respect of the child, are not assessed when establishing entitlement to the payment. The social welfare and civil law-----

See this speech in context