Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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40. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the actions she will take to prevent lone parents being forced into court to seek maintenance in order to retain income supports; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14882/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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One-Parent Family Payment and Jobseeker's Transitional Payment are means tested payments for people who are parenting alone.  One of the conditions attached to these schemes is a requirement for people to make efforts to seek maintenance from their child's other parent.

The Programme for Government commits the Government to act to reform our child maintenance system and in line with this commitment, we established a Child Maintenance Review Group to examine certain issues in relation to child maintenance in Ireland.  The Group is chaired by former Circuit Court Judge Catherine Murphy and includes legal, policy and academic professionals as well as officials from my Department and the Department of Justice.

The Group's Terms of Reference are to consider and make recommendations on:

(i) the current treatment of child maintenance payments in my Department;

(ii) the current provisions regarding liable relatives managed by my Department; and

(iii) the establishment of a Child Maintenance Agency in Ireland.

These Terms of Reference encompass an examination of the "efforts to seek maintenance" requirement to which the Deputy refers.

The work of the Group is well underway.  To date, the Group has held sixteen meetings and further meetings are planned on a regular basis until the report's completion.  A consultation process to facilitate feedback from stakeholder groups and members of the public in order to inform the Group's work was undertaken last year. 

I have been advised by the Chair that the Group's report is expected to be submitted to me before Easter.  I look forward to considering it conclusions and recommendations.

I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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41. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons that have benefited from the reduction in the number of waiting days for illness benefit claims since the changes were made to the scheme. [14839/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Illness Benefit is not paid for the first 3 days of an illness. Up to March 2021, there was no payment for the first 6 days.  The “waiting days” reduced to 3 from 01 March 2021.  There are no waiting days where a customer is  getting certain other social welfare payments within 3 days of the start of the claim.

154,274 customers benefitted from the reduction in waiting days in the period since 1 March 2021. These claims were put into payment from the 4^thday of illness, resulting in the customer receiving payment for a period for which they would have previously been ineligible.

I trust this clarifies the position for the Deputy.