Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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72. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to establish a separate agency to claim maintenance on behalf of lone parents; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46898/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware from previous questions on this matter, the Department is working on a review of the maintenance and liable relative procedures, insofar as they relate to the payment schemes operated by my Department. From a broader perspective, the wider issues relating to maintenance, including the establishment of a child maintenance service to assist lone parents, are a matter for my colleague the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, who has responsibility for the family law Acts, which govern maintenance requirements.

The family law Acts place a legal obligation on parents to maintain their children. In cases where the family unit has broken down, these obligations continue to apply. Relevant maintenance payments can be arranged either directly between the parties themselves, or with the assistance of supports from the Department of Justice and Equality, such as the family mediation service and the Legal Aid Board, or ultimately through the courts.

With regard to the work within the Department, the preliminary stages of the internal review have now concluded. My officials now intend meeting with the Department of Justice and Equality, with a view to ascertaining its views and to considering jointly the next steps in relation to family maintenance arrangements. A meeting has been scheduled for later this month.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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Is there not a maintenance recovery unit in the Department which applies only to lone parents whose child is younger than seven years? Why has that not been extended in tandem with the changes in the lone parent allowance regulations? When the child is older than seven years the lone parent gets a different type of payment, jobseeker's transition, as opposed to lone parent allowance but there seems to be no logical reason why that system does not apply equally to somebody who is in the jobseeker's transition on the basis that they are a single parent.

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I kind of tend to agree with the Deputy but I am not sure whether we should expand or do away with it. I am not sure it is our job in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection to chase errant parents. It is definitely somebody's job but I am totally against penalising women, as they are in the main, for not chasing the errant partner to look after their children. I have several ideas as to what should happen if the world was perfect but some of them fall under my remit and some do not. That is what will be discussed at the meeting later this month. Once that meeting has been held we can maybe have a further conversation about what might be most suitable.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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It is not just a question of the Department chasing errant parents but of combatting poverty. The poverty statistics among lone parents, as the Minister is aware, are particularly stark. In many cases somebody is not in a position to go to court because their partner is violent. Even when they do go to court and do not get paid the Department tends to assess them for maintenance which the court has granted but which they are not being paid.

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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We do not.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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If that has changed the change must have been very recent because as far as I can see it is still the position. If somebody is in that situation they will not want to take the risk of getting an order for maintenance which they feel sure is not going to be paid and having it assessed against any lone parent allowance they will get.

The lone parent allowance will not make anybody rich and in its current form it will not do much to combat the levels of poverty among single parents but if they were able to get maintenance in addition it would certainly combat poverty in an area where it is particularly prevalent.

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Whether we expand or downgrade our liable relatives division has no impact on a parent's poverty whatsoever because the payment issued to the parent is done on the basis of that parent's circumstances. If they get maintenance there is a very generous maintenance disregard. If they do not get maintenance it is not included in our assessment. They do not get it and we compensate for the fact that they do not get it. That is as it should be. The Department is here to look after people in vulnerable positions. If they get money towards maintenance they get a generous disregard. If they do not get money it is up to the State to ensure that family has a minimum standard of living.

I need to square the circle of whether it is the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection's legal responsibility to chase errant parents or that of some other arm of the State, or maybe a collective authority from the Department of Justice and Equality and our Department. Until I figure that out, I am not going to put any woman, and it is in the main women, in the vulnerable position of having to chase somebody so that she can qualify for a payment from our Department. That is not the way it should be and that is not the way it is now.