Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My colleague, Senator Power, and I have tried to outline why we oppose the section. We have supported other sections of the Bill so it is not a case of us opposing this for the sake of it. I am disappointed that none of the recommendations, from all sides and parties, including the Independents, has been accepted. They were well thought out. I give a guarded welcome to the Minister's commitment that if there is a difficulty in this process, he will seek a review. Who will flag those difficulties? If the Bill is passed today, there will be no further change to the legislation. Once it is done, it will not be undone.

Senator van Turnhout mentioned the Dutch model for co-parenting in the Netherlands, and there is no reason that cannot be done here. In a response to a question earlier, the Minister indicated that he saw difficulties with the sharing of other people's financial and personal information. The process works very well in the Netherlands so I wonder if the Minister is using an excuse. He was clear in his contribution earlier that he sees this as a tax measure. The social impact of the measure he is introducing is something that the Government and Minister for Finance should consider.

The Minister directly asked Members earlier if they believed it fair that parents - be they married, co-habiting couples or those in civil partnerships - should pay extra tax to allow for this tax credit. I am married and I have a child and I would see it as fair to have to pay additional tax to support families that have broken up. There would be additional cost and we must ensure that children not being brought up in an ideal environment - the family environment where most of us hope to be brought up, whatever the construction of the family - do not find it more difficult. The onus is on me as a citizen and taxpayer in this respect, as the purpose of tax is to pay for services for others who need them. Those of us who can afford to pay for that should do so. To answer the Minister's question directly, it is fair for some to pay extra tax to allow for this credit.

The measures being brought through in section 7 are unfair and will have a social consequence. I was very struck by Senator Jim D'Arcy's contribution earlier on what many of us believe is the position of single fathers in particular in Irish society. There is no question that most single fathers in relationships that have broken up feel like a second class parent. I have friends who are separated and divorced but I also know this from representations I have received.

In what he is doing the Minister is copperfastening that parent as a second-class parent. He continues to emphasise the primary parent and the primary carer. He is creating a hierarchy of parents and parenting, whereby one parent is more important than the other. That is the implication of these changes. I am sure that is not what he wants to do and know it is not what my colleagues who will shortly vote on these changes want to do. I again put it to my colleagues on the Government side that this is an opportunity for the Seanad to make a recommendation. It would send a clear signal that it has listened.

Members will agree that Barnardos, Treoir and One Family are three agencies that are the experts in this area. All three are completely opposed to these changes. They, like me and my party, agree that changes and reform are required. However, is it a question of the Government being right and all the experts such as the agencies I mentioned being wrong and their concerns about the changes brought forward by the Minister being irrelevant? The Government is all-powerful and all-knowing; therefore, any independent advice and opinion given to it by the expert agencies is simply to be set aside and ignored.

We have had a good debate on this section and I thank the Minister for his open contribution to it and responding to the questions we have asked, but that does not get around the fundamental fact of what Members are doing in voting to support section 7. All of the negative impacts that others and I have mentioned will come to pass. Maintenance orders will be unpicked; maintenance agreements reached in the family courts will not be met and people who depend on this tax credit to look after their children and travel to see them will not be able to do so. It is an anti-family and certainly an anti-child measure. For that reason, it should be trenchantly opposed.