Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I recall him asking Charlie McCreevy - Champagne Charlie - for €1 billion for the health service but he was told to reform it. He never bothered and now the task falls to Deputy Reilly, who is working very hard to do so.

Senator O'Brien mentioned the replacement of the one-parent family credit with the single person child care credit from 1 January next year. The unintended consequence of this measure is to discriminate against separated fathers, as the designated principal carer is usually the mother, and I have no problem with that. The measure does not recognise the increasing role played by fathers in the care of children, regardless of designation. We spent a weekend at the Constitutional Convention speaking about the role of women in public life and we want to see that recalibrated. We heard female Deputies say this week that the insertion in the Constitution of the "special place" of women in the home was insulting. The necessary recalibration should bring about an increasing recognition of the role of fathers in private life.

I have spoken with the Minister for Finance about the matter and we could table amendments to the Finance Bill to have this provision examined to explore the division of the credit, or it could be shared in some way.

I hope we can look at that during the debate on the Finance Bill.