I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. I am aware that this Bill, which is of a somewhat technical nature, is probably one which Deputies find it difficult to interpret, and it was in anticipation of such difficulty that I circulated with the Bill an explanatory memorandum. The Bill deals largely with matters of administration in connection with the children's allowances scheme. Deputies will remember that, when that scheme was under discussion in the Dáil on the submission of the Children's Allowances Act, 1944, the House was concerned with the efficiency of the proposed methods of administration. I explained then the reasons which led to the adoption of certain devices which seemed likely to minimise the difficulties which members of the public would have in understanding their rights and obligations under the scheme, and, at the same time, reduce the staffing problems that were likely to arise in connection with it.
Under the original scheme, payment of children's allowances to qualified applicants was made upon the basis of six monthly periods. Qualifying dates were fixed, and on the basis of the family circumstances upon these qualifying dates the amount of the allowance was paid during the ensuing payment period on a flat rate basis without regard to changes in the family circumstances until the next qualifying date. I mentioned then the staff problem that would arise if the same qualifying dates and the same payment periods were fixed for the whole country. In such an event the task of adjudicating on claims and of issuing vouchers for the payment of allowances would become particularly heavy at certain periods of the year, while the administrative work to be done in the remaining periods would be light, thus making the economical use of staff a matter of some difficulty, or necessitating, what most Deputies would regard as undesirable, the periodical employment of a large number of temporary officials.
In the course of the period which has elapsed since the inauguration of the scheme experience has been gained, and that experience has suggested that there are changes which might usefully be made. We are avoiding the concentration of the work of administering the scheme into certain limited periods of the year by the device of providing in the Bill for a division of applicants into groups on a regional basis. Three regions were fixed, and different qualifying dates and different payment periods were fixed for each of these groups thus, to some extent, spreading the administrative work over the whole year. That system of administration, on the basis of regional areas, had certain advantages other than those which I have indicated already. It was devised mainly as an administrative measure to solve a staff problem, but it was recognised that it would also be beneficial to persons claiming children's allowances if, in each locality, the same qualifying dates existed for all claimants and the same payment periods. Although the attention of claimants and beneficiaries under the scheme to their obligations, particularly the need to renew their claims at particular dates, is drawn by advertisements in the Press and by announcements over the radio, in practice, as most Deputies realise, the most effective method of getting these dates understood and obligations appreciated is to have them a matter of common knowledge in each locality. The adoption of uniform qualifying dates and of uniform payment periods for each region facilitated the administration of the scheme in a manner which would not have been possible if each individual applicant had a separate date for qualifying and a separate period during which payment might be made.
However, in the matter of administering the Act, as passed, the system of grouping claimants upon the basis of fixed regions determined by Order proved to be too rigid, nor did it entirely eliminate the problem associated with the economical use of staff which we had in mind when framing the scheme originally. The number of claimants in each of the regions proved, in the event, to be uniform, and the adoption of that particular device involved also quite elaborate provisions to deal with the cases of persons who transferred their residences from one region to another. There was also the very particular objection, to which expression was given during the course of the debates in the Dáil on the Bill, that the adoption of two qualifying dates in a particular year meant that, in certain cases, there would be an unduly long delay between the date upon which a family might become qualified to receive the children's allowance and the actual commencement of the payment of the allowance.
The original scheme, as I mentioned, involved two qualifying dates and two payment periods for each region. If the qualifying date for a particular region was the 1st May, a family which became qualified by the addition of a third child on the 1st April, would prove its entitlement to the allowance on the 1st May, and proceed to draw the allowance upon the basis of that entitlement for the six months from the 1st August, irrespective of changes in the family circumstances, until the next qualifying date, which would be 1st November. On the other hand, the family which did not qualify for the allowance until 1st June, or any date shortly after the qualifying date, could not become qualified under the scheme, or could not prove that it was qualified, until the next qualifying date on the 1st November, and would not be entitled to receive benefit until the payment period beginning on the 1st February. The change in the system of administration which it is now proposed to adopt, and for which this Bill provides, will go a long way to remove that objection.
It is, of course, practicable, as Deputies will understand, to adopt any system of grouping of applicants which would divide them into groups of more or less equal numbers. Conceivably, applicants could be grouped in alphabetical order or in numerical order, but as there are advantages in the regional system of grouping it is desired to retain it. This Bill will provide, however, only for grouping without specifying the basis of groups, or making it a legal obligation to have applicants grouped by area of residence. The intention is to maintain the regional system of grouping for the reasons I have indicated. By making it a statutory obligation, however, to have claimants grouped in groups of some kind, a greater degree of flexibility is introduced. Any drift of population from one region to another can be easily adjusted and, by the further device of taking power to alter the first payment period in individual cases, a much more free system of administration can be introduced, with considerable advantage to beneficiaries under the scheme. Instead of having the fixed areas with two qualifying dates for each area, and two payment periods for each area, we will have in future areas which can be varied from time to time if the occasion should arise and, by the device of taking power to alter the first payment period, it is possible to introduce a welcome innovation in so far as new entrants can be admitted into the scheme at any qualifying date for any area.
It will be understood that the problems of admitting new claimants into the scheme will offer much less difficulty under this new arrangement. There will be for new claimants, not merely two qualifying dates appropriate to the area in which they live, but six qualifying dates during the year and any new claimant can establish entitlement to a children's allowance at any one of those six dates. If the claimant is admitted as having a proper claim under the Act he will, of course, be put into the group to which he belongs according to the location of his residence but the duration of the first payment period of children's allowance to that claimant will be altered so as to make it conclude at the time at which the current payment period for that group concludes, so that, for subsequent payment periods, the new claimant will in fact have the same qualifying dates and the same payment periods as everyone else in the locality in which he resides. That change for the benefit of new claimants can, if this Bill is passed, be brought into operation on the 1st October this year.
That system of dealing with new claimants can be applied also to the case of persons moving from one area to another. Under the original Act, we had very complicated provisions to deal with the case of a person who moved from one area to another but, under this new system, all these old complicated regulations can be dispensed with and the case of a person moving from one area to another can be dealt with by the very simple method of altering the duration of the payment period next after the transfer so as to bring its conclusion into line with the conclusion of the current payment period for the new group area in which he will reside.
The advantages secured by that proposed change in the legislation are, therefore, first, this easier access to the scheme by new claimants, a much larger number of qualifying dates, so that there is not the same delay in admitting to the scheme a family that becomes newly qualified, and, on the other hand, a simplification of the administrative problems which arose in connection with the employment of staff for the operation of this scheme.
Another change which it is proposed to make relates to the qualification of the person claiming the allowance. Certain difficulties have arisen because in the Principal Act the basis of a claim for an allowance in respect of a child was that the claimant was maintaining the child. It is true that the Act was so framed as to make the fact that a child was resident with the claimant evidence that the child was being maintained by the claimant, and in the vast majority of cases it is, of course, true that the child resides with the person who is maintaining it. The fact that it is not universally true did, however, cause difficulties, as in cases where children were not living with their parents, even though one or both of the parents were alive, and certain people have failed to qualify for children's allowances on that account. It will help Deputies to understand the problem if I give an illustration: A child might be living with its grandparents on the qualifying date. There might in fact be no payment of any kind by the parents to the grandparents for the maintenance of the child, and the grandparent might claim a children's allowance in respect of the child on the ground that the grandparent was maintaining the child, proof of the fact being that the child was living with the grandparent. On the other hand, the child would ordinarily be regarded, and should ordinarily be regarded, as residing with the parents even though for reasons of family convenience or otherwise, the child was for a period residing with his grandparents. We are, therefore, proposing to take out of the Bill this condition of maintenance and to regard as entitlement to a claim for a children's allowance the question of residence only. Ordinarily a child will be regarded as residing with its parents even though it may at the qualifying date or for a temporary period, or otherwise, be actually living with some other relative, or elsewhere. The principle will, however, be to relate the child to the parent unless it is clearly shown that there is in fact no link whatever with the parental home. The advantage of that to the public is that in certain cases of larger families the full entitlement to a maximum children's allowance can be established by the parents, whereas in cases where housing difficulties and other problems had involved the breaking up of the family amongst relatives that entitlement to children's allowance at the maximum rate might not be capable of demonstration.
In order to simplify the problem of administration, it is proposed that the Minister for Industry and Commerce should have power to prescribe the rules which the deciding officers will operate in determining with whom a qualified child normally resides. I want to make it clear that these rules will be so framed as to make it clear that the decision must be that the child normally resides with its parents unless it can be adequately demonstrated by some claimant who is not the parent of the child that the link with the parental home is completely severed.
A further change which has been made will permit an Irish citizen to claim, even though he is not resident in the State on the qualifying date. As the law stood, the claimant had to be resident here on the qualifying date. The change will permit a claim to be made even though the parent is not resident here on the qualifying date and will operate to permit some other person to apply on behalf of the parent in the parent's absence.
There are some other minor changes which are designed to make more adequate the provision designed to ensure that a child will not be the subject of more than one allowance at the same time and to provide also that a child who is admitted to a reformatory or an industrial school after a qualifying date will cease to be regarded as qualified.
These amendments do not affect the principle of the original measure but they are all the outcome of the experience which has been gained in the operation of the principal measure since it was enacted. They were considered first of all in relation to the administrative problems that arose, and are designed to effect certain improvements in the operation of the measure which will be of benefit to the people of the country. I recommend that the Bill be adopted.