Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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300. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the reason Ireland does not have a child support agency that pursues and collects child maintenance for the children and primary parent (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37541/24]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Child Maintenance Review Group was established in 2020 by the Minister for Social Protection to consider and make recommendations in relation to the establishment of a State Child Maintenance Agency, among other things.

Its report was published in November 2022 and on foot of the report it was decided by Government that a State Child Maintenance Agency should not be established. It was agreed that the Department of Justice would undertake a review of the enforcement of child maintenance orders in the context of the wider reforms of family justice underway as part of the ongoing implementation of the Family Justice Strategy.

That Review was carried out and published on 8 January 2024. It builds on the report of the Child Maintenance Review Group. It puts forward 26 recommendations focused on generating maximum compliance with child maintenance orders, to ensure security and stability for children and to aid poverty prevention.

The recommendations, while mainly focused on strengthening provisions for court enforcement of child maintenance orders, also look at ways to encourage voluntary payment and to assist people to make private arrangements. They focus on improving the way in which maintenance is agreed/ordered, the way in which payment is encouraged, the means by which default can be avoided and greater mechanisms for enforcement.

The key recommendations of the review include:

• Development of a set of child maintenance guidelines.
• Introduction of mandatory mediation information sessions.
• Strengthening attachment of earnings orders and exploring the possibility of attaching an order to a PPS number rather than employing entities, so that orders do not lapse when there is a change in employer.
• Introduction of a single enforcement procedure when the receiving parent makes an enforcement application, allowing the judge to choose the most appropriate enforcement option based on the circumstances of the case.
• Simplification of the bench warrant process.
• Placing the onus on paying parents to pay costs associated with enforcement proceedings.
• Allowing for deductions from social welfare, the paying parent’s bank accounts, from government grants and subsidies and allowing for the recovery of arrears from tax refunds.