Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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5. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when she will publish the child maintenance review (details supplied). [50612/22]

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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When will the Minister for Social Protection publish the child maintenance review, which she received in April? Groups representing lone parents expected it to be made public before the summer recess. Does the Minister have money in the pot for the implementation of any recommendations that may come from the review later in the year?

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. In line with the programme for Government commitment, the Government established a child maintenance review group to examine certain issues on 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 my Department; the current provisions regarding liable relatives managed by my Department; and the establishment of a child maintenance agency in Ireland. As part of its work, the group conducted a public consultation process. Submissions were received from members of the public, as well as Members of the Oireachtas, NGOs and professional bodies. The group also examined the international position where there are a variety of different approaches taken to these matters.

The group's report was submitted to me in April. I am giving the report the careful consideration such an important and complex issue deserves. Given that it relates to issues beyond the scope of the social welfare system, I am also consulting Government colleagues. Once the report has been fully considered, I intend to bring it to Government before the end of this year, at which time a decision regarding a publication date will be made.

As lone parents continue to be a group at a high risk of poverty, I was pleased to provide a number of measures in budget 2023 that will be of benefit to them. Recipients of one-parent family payment and jobseeker's transitional payment will be among those who receive a double weekly-payment in October and a 100% Christmas bonus in December. Lone parents will also receive a double payment of child benefit in November. Approximately half the people who receive the €500 cost-of-living lump sum payment, which will be made to recipients of the working family payment in November, will be lone parents.

I have also provided a €40 increase in the weekly income thresholds for the working family payment from January. Lone parents will also benefit from the increase of €12 in the weekly rate of working-age payments in January. The rate for a qualified child will increase to €42 and €50 per week in respect of a qualified child aged under or over 12 years, respectively. These rates will have increased by €6 for under-12s and €10 for over-12s in the past three budgets.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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As the Minister will be aware, this review was warmly welcomed by lone parents and the organisations One Family and SPARK, and they were very keen to process the review. The Minister says the review will not be published until possibly the end of the year or maybe early next year. Has she made provision within her Department's budget for the implementation of any recommendations that may come from that review? Most lone parents were hoping recognition would have been given to the fact that the payment of maintenance payments can be erratic.

The Economic and Social Research Institute, ERSI, and the Vincentians have said that when you strip out all the one-off payments, which are welcome and which no one will refuse, the social welfare rates are below inflation and people will find themselves struggling further next year even though money has been pumped into the system.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The ESRI estimates the combination of budget 2023 and cost-of-living supports will protect most households from inflationary pressures over the coming year, more so than if welfare rates alone had been increased in line with inflation. It concluded that this will substantially cushion real incomes across society The ESRI has said it will make a difference and that what we have done in the budget will help households deal with the inflationary pressures.

On the child maintenance review, I have met with and spoken to the chair and she has gone through the review in detail. I found our conversation very useful. I have spoken to my colleagues, the Ministers for Justice and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, because there are issues relating to both of their Departments. I will have further discussions with them in the coming days and will bring a report to Government in the next few weeks.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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The Minister will understand there is a sense of urgency among lone parents and the groups representing them that this would be processed as quickly as possible. I again ask if she has made provision in her budget from the point of view of the recommendations coming out of this review. I do not know whether payments will be costed, whether a one-stop shop will be set up or whatever comes out of this review.

I read an article that said once-off payments are welcome and have an impact but that the basic welfare rate has not kept up with inflation and this will have an impact on people with them having less money in March or April of next year. The Vincentians also said in their report that lone parents with a child in primary or secondary will be short by €78.59 in respect of the adequate levels of income next year.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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We cannot take any of these things in isolation. We need to take things in their totality. There is a lump sum and there are increases. All of those taken together will clearly protect the most vulnerable households from inflationary pressures over the coming year. We have to take the whole lot together.

Deputy Kerrane also raised the issue of child maintenance reviews. We want to make progress on this because most of the people who are affected by child maintenance, or the lack thereof, are women. We know that. I genuinely want to move this on. There have been a lot of things in the past couple of months, such as pensions, budgets, auto-enrolment and the cost of living. It is now my priority to deal with this issue. I want to get it right. We have examined models in other countries. While on the surface something might appear to be the right solution, when one starts to dig in a bit there are things that might not work well here. Ultimately, when a maintenance order has been made, if one parent is supposed to pay the other for the upkeep of the child, we want to make sure that the money gets to that parent every week.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I was going to say that the brevity this morning is because of the preponderance of female contributions, but that would not be fair to Deputy Berry who was also extremely brief.