Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 128: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason for not awarding child benefit directly to fathers when that is the expressed wish of both parents. [8917/10]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The current arrangements for paying child benefit are defined under the provisions of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005 with the detailed rules set out in article 159 of the Social Welfare (Consolidated Claims, Payments and Control) Regulations, 2007.

The day-to-day needs of the children are the priority consideration in the operation of the current child benefit payment arrangements. Child benefit is payable to the person with whom a qualified child normally resides. The regulations governing normal residence for Child benefit purposes, provides that a child who is resident with both parents shall be regarded as being normally resident with the mother. Where the child is living full-time with the father only, then child benefit will be payable to the father.

The scheme does not specifically provide for the payment to the father where the child is also resident with the mother although there are a small number of child benefit claims in payment to the father in such cases. These payments are made in circumstances such as where the mother is terminally ill or is an alcoholic or drug addict and therefore unlikely to reflect the best interests of the child. Since June 2008, with the introduction of EIT payments, this is facilitated by issuing a letter to the spouse allowing him to collect the payments at the Post Office using the mother's social services card. The father has to produce this letter and the social security card at the Post Office in order to collect the payment. More generally, in EFT cases, both parents can effectively have access to the payment through the operation of a joint account.

The current policy and practice of paying the benefit to the mother is based on the assumption that it is in the best interest of the child. The arrangements effectively date back to changes to the children's allowance scheme in the mid-1970s and they have received explicit or implicit support from a number of sources such as the Commission on the Status of Women Report (1972) and by later research looking at family spending patterns. Nonetheless, I am aware of the need to keep this approach under review in the light of equality legislation, significant social changes and changing family demographics.