Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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678. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of the progress of the judge-led group announced as part of Budget 2020 to examine and make recommendations in relation to child maintenance payments. [10347/20]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I established a Child Maintenance Review Group to examine a number of issues regarding child maintenance. Specifically, the group is tasked with examining whether there is a case for the establishment of a child maintenance agency in Ireland. It will be chaired by former Circuit Court Judge Catherine Murphy.

The purpose of the Child Maintenance Review Group is to consider and make recommendations on:

- The current treatment within the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection of child maintenance payments;

- The current provisions relating to the liable relatives regarding child maintenance; and

-The establishment of a State Child Maintenance Agency.

The Child Maintenance Review Group's work will get underway shortly.

A number of issues regarding child maintenance have arisen during the Coiv-19 pandemic. Where a One Parent Family recipient is no longer receiving their usual maintenance payment, for example because the liable relative concerned has lost their job, they should contact their local Intreo Centre to to provide a declaration to that effect. This will allow their means will be reassessed on that basis for a period of 12 weeks, following which the situation will be reviewed.

Given that the family courts are not hearing maintenance cases during the pandemic, this situation will be carefully monitored on an ongoing basis, to ensure that there are no difficulties or hardship for this group of customers.