Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are 190,000 children in Ireland today classified as at risk of poverty. Child maintenance is essential. I find it incongruous that although child maintenance is absolutely essential, it is included in assessments for some necessary supports.

I welcome the Minister’s words. I hope he will work with me across party lines on this matter. No one will disagree with the idea that child maintenance should not be included when calculating assessments for supports because those supports are often for families, whereas child maintenance is for the child. Given those stark statistics and the fact that organisations such as Social Justice Ireland tell us that all once-off payments, which the Minister said will be discontinued, do is mask an increasing trend of child poverty, that needs to be tackled. The Minister can send a message to families on low incomes and people dependent on supports and payments by saying what is recognised by the Department of Social Protection must be recognised by all other Departments.

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