Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I just want to explain. I understand the Senator's concern that we should limit, as far as possible, the impact of changes in arrangements for people who are very vulnerable. However, the complexity of the social welfare system is such that where we have somebody whose spouse has earnings in excess of €400, particularly where the partner is a carer, it is very likely there will be additional income in the house. If the person is caring for a child of the family, there will be other payments going to that family, either the domiciliary care allowance or the disability allowance from the age of 16. I wish to make that point to the Senators.

Senator Mooney spoke earlier about the ESRI study, which was mentioned on Second Stage. I have not had an opportunity to study it in detail. I said to him that when the pressure of debate is less difficult, it would be interesting to have a look at that report. The report makes a number of interesting observations on lone parent families and the reasons they have not had better outcomes, given our structure of income supports.

Senator Mooney and others raised the issue of the ESRI study, which queried whether people living in informal, cohabiting partnerships were aware that, under legislative changes, they may have incurred relationship responsibilities even though they were not in formal civil partnerships or marriages. This is a valid observation, but I am not a lawyer. As with the issue of the adoption of children in civil partnerships, I hope we will have an opportunity to revisit this debate further down the road so that we can consider its impact on families, irrespective of whether the parents in those families are married or in civil partnerships. For example, what are the implications for children if a parent in a civil partnership dies? Unfortunately, we do not have the time to discuss these questions now.