Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senators, including Senator O'Brien, propose that rather than requiring a person making a claim for the single person child carer credit as a secondary claimant to demonstrate he or she is involved in the actual care of the child, adhering to the terms of a court order maintenance agreement would be sufficient. The intent of the legislation is to provide a support for those single persons who have the additional responsibility of caring for a child while in employment. The credit is not granted simply on the basis a claimant is obliged to provide financial maintenance for a child but rather where the adult is involved in the care of the child.

Existing tax legislation does not provide tax relief for the element of a maintenance agreement on divorce or separation of parents which specifically refers to support for children. All parents have an equal responsibility to provide financial support for these children. Parents in families are not granted a tax credit where they must bear a similar cost. The Senators further propose partial relief should be possible in circumstances where the primary carer does not fully utilise the credit. There are clear administrative difficulties in circumstances where the credit being granted to one person is determined by reference to the tax situation of another independent person. To provide such a division of a credit would probably expose the Revenue to have to indicate in some fashion the confidential detail of another person's financial circumstances. I introduced an amendment on Committee Stage in the Dáil which provides for the circumstances whereby the secondary carer can claim the single person child carer credit and for this reason I must oppose the Senator's recommendation.