Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House, and I wish her well with this Bill. It is a short, small Bill, but it is very important and it covers quite a considerable amount, given its size. I welcome the amendment the Minister will table relating to 18-year-olds. As she has rightly pointed out, many kids do not now start national school until they are five years of age and are still going to secondary school at 18 years of age. That is a very important amendment, and we will fully support it when it comes before the House on Committee Stage.

The Bill covers two main areas, namely, the two changes the Minister is making to social welfare systems. Child maintenance payments will no longer be assessed as means and there is the discontinuation of the liable relative provisions. Those are the two main provisions of the Bill, although it deals with other issues as well. Those are two very important issues.

The biggest issue in the courts at the moment is family law. The legal people tell me that nearly all legal cases relate to family law, maintenance, and you name it. All aspects of it are in the courts at the moment. This will help clear up a lot of it. The main thing is that the kids are not the losers in all of this and, as the Minister has said here, that the maintenance is going to be paid. The maintenance will be paid regardless of whether one or other of the spouses does not pay the maintenance. They are obligated to do that, of course, but heretofore, all this maintenance money was held up to families. I know for a fact that there are quite a considerable number of Members of this House who have themselves paid money to people who have come into their offices, who are in desperate situations and did not have enough money to buy a cup of tea. Members of the House paid. This will put an end to that. I compliment the Minister on bringing that forward because the main issue is that kids do not go hungry and this maintenance fee is paid to them. The Minister is to be congratulated on bringing that forward.

I welcome the Bill and I wish the Minister well. I hope the Bill passes speedily through the House on this Stage and Committee Stage. I wish her well with the Bill.