Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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49. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will recognise that persons in receipt of the single parent tax credit can have more than one child and these children may not have both the same parents, and in view of the situation whereby there is only one credit, that an arrangement must be put in place where it can be shared; and the action he will take regarding same. [30539/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I assume the Deputy refers to cases where a primary carer of children wishes to relinquish the credit to a non-primary carer in circumstances where there is potentially more than one non-primary carer as a result of the relevant children having different parents. The relevant legislation does recognise that where there is more than one child within the primary carer's family unit and there may be a different parent of each of the children, in such circumstances the credit may be granted to a secondary claimant but only in circumstances where the primary claimant relinquishes their claim to the credit.

I would remind the Deputy that the purpose of the Single Person Child Carer Credit is to incentivise primary carers to remain in or return to the labour market.  As a concession, going beyond that which was recommended by the Commission on Taxation, the Government has allowed the primary carer to relinquish the credit such that it can taken up by a secondary carer in certain circumstances.