Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 24 Feb 2022

Vol. 1018 No. 6

Social Welfare (Payment Order) (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage [Private Members]

Deputy Claire Kerrane

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

This is very important legislation and, if passed, it will make an immediate difference to lone parents and their families. The current situation for both income supports which lone parents can receive, the one-parent family payment and jobseeker’s transitional payment, sees lone parents having to prove they have sought maintenance in order to both qualify for and retain that income support. In many cases, for lone parents that can be their only source of weekly income.

In the case of the one-parent family payment, lone parents are helped in some way by the Department of Social Protection’s liable relatives unit, which seeks either a contribution from the non-custodial parent directly towards the Department of Social Protection essentially recouping part of the costs of paying out the one-parent family payment in the first instance, or it would begin to pay maintenance directly to the lone parent. However, the issue arises with the cliff edge when the youngest child turns seven. The lone parent typically then moves onto jobseeker’s transitional payment and is still required to seek maintenance in order to both qualify for jobseeker’s transitional payment and to retain it. At that point, the Department walks away but not before it writes to the non-custodial parent telling them they are no longer liable to make a contribution. This pushes the lone parent into court to seek maintenance.

The way this typically works is that the lone parent will wait for a while to eventually get a court date and will go to court potentially several times. Eventually, once his or her case is heard, a maintenance order can be granted but that does not mean maintenance is actually paid. The lone parent will then go away. The maintenance order is treated as household income and it is taken off other income supports coming into the household, regardless of whether it is paid. In cases where it is not paid, it is back to the lone parent, back to court again, and a bench warrant is typically issued which typically sits on a Garda desk for months or years on end. Even where the maintenance order is granted, it is not always necessarily paid. Time and again, it is back to the lone parent, and the lone parent alone.

This legislation, if passed, would extend the powers of the Department’s liable relatives unit to allow it to seek a contribution from the non-custodial parent beyond the duration of just the one-parent family payment. It would allow that unit to seek a contribution while the lone parent receives the jobseeker’s transitional payment, and this is paid until the youngest child is 14. I am clear in bringing forward this legislation that this is not a silver bullet; it is not a solution to the entire issue, as complex as it is when it comes to lone parent supports and to maintenance in particular. What this legislation would do, if passed, is take the pressure off lone parents in essentially being forced to go to court in order to access their income support and retain it.

We have to remember when we discuss any issue in regard to child maintenance that it is not an easy thing for a lone parent to be asked to go to court in order to retain, in some cases, the only income support they will have. Courts are not an appropriate environment. They are not child-centred, I believe, and they are not the right avenue for seeking child maintenance. They have not worked up to now and they are not going to work because a court is not where this issue should be sorted out.

Census 2016, which is the latest census data we have, shows there are over 218,000 households headed by a lone parent in this State and they make up 25% of family units, as the CSO calls them. Once again, we saw further data published yesterday in the survey on income and living conditions and, once again, they showed that lone-parent families have the highest consistent rate of poverty of all household types, with 21.6% in consistent poverty compared with 0.4% for households that are headed by two parents. They are at a high risk of poverty and they also experience very high levels of deprivation. Again, this is a picture that is painted every time and every year the survey on income and living conditions is published. These levels of poverty and deprivation among lone-parent families are shameful in 2022. We know the payment of child maintenance can play a role in lifting children out of poverty, which has been proven by research time and again.

Of course, there is a wider issue. On two occasions in recent years, we have brought forward the child maintenance service system that we want to see established. It is in place in the North of Ireland and it works quite well. We need to see a statutory child maintenance service established in this State. This would take it out of the lone parent’s hands and take it out of court, and it would allow the Department to step in. In this case, the child maintenance service would step in and calculate the maintenance required to be paid for a lone parent household and it would not only do that, but it would collect that maintenance and ensure it is actually paid in the first instance.

In 2019, Fine Gael abstained on a motion we brought forward calling for the establishment of a child maintenance service. At every single round of priority and oral questions, we raised the need for a child maintenance service to be established and we have repeatedly asked for that over three years at every single round of questions. Eventually, in January 2020, just before the general election was called, the Minister at the time, Senator Regina Doherty, announced that she would establish a child maintenance review group, which was and is welcome. We expect that now, albeit late, it is going to review this and come forward with a report at Easter, which is welcome.

I have read the amendment that is being put forward. It looked familiar and, indeed, it is familiar because it is almost word for word the amendment that was brought forward the last time this Bill was taken forward by Fianna Fáil in this House in 2018. It is again kicking the can down the road. I appreciate the review group is in place and it has to do its job. That is fine but what we could do now, and what the Government could do now, is take the pressure off lone parents and stop forcing them into courtrooms in order to seek maintenance to allow them to keep that little income support they rely on. The reality is that lone-parent families have suffered and I would go so far as to say they have been neglected in Ireland for many years. They have suffered huge levels of poverty and they continue to do so, and the data yesterday prove that point which has been proven time and again.

We need to stop counting maintenance as household means. If child maintenance is paid, then it is a payment towards the rearing of the child and that is how it should be seen. It should not be seen by the Department of Social Protection as a source of income into the house that reduces other income. That should not happen. That could be stopped now, regardless of what the child maintenance review group will say at Easter. Again, regardless of what the child maintenance review group will say at Easter, we could right now take away that obligation on lone parents to seek maintenance. We should do that because we should not be pushing them into courtrooms in order to seek maintenance and to prove they have done that in order to get an income support from the Department of Social Protection. I am disappointed that the same amendment almost word for word from 2018 has been brought in again all these years later, when lone parents have waited and waited.

I ask that the Government reconsider its position on this Bill. It is a Fianna Fáil Bill from 2018, word for word. I presume that party has not changed its tune in regard to its position on lone-parent families, or I at least hope it has not. I ask that the Government reflect on its position, given the importance of supporting lone-parent families in our State and supporting their children who, day after day, are living in poverty in far too many cases. We have a way to support them. We can do that through the payment of child maintenance. I hope the review group will recommend in a few weeks' time the establishment, at long last, of a statutory child maintenance service that will ensure maintenance is calculated correctly and that it is paid, as it is well-deserved and should be paid. It should not have come to this. I ask that the Government review its position in regard to waiting on the child maintenance review group.

There are steps the Government can take. It could tell lone parents immediately that it will not force them into court to seek maintenance to get income support. I ask the Minister to reflect on that.

Minister of State at the Department of Health (Deputy Frankie Feighan)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "That" and substitute the following:

"Dáil Éireann, while acknowledging the relevance of the Social Welfare (Payment Order) (Amendment) Bill 2021 in the context of the current conditions in the child maintenance system, resolves that the Bill be deemed to be read a second time this day six months to allow for consideration of the outcome of the Child Maintenance Review Group, as its terms of reference include an examination of the liable relative provisions which the Bill seeks to amend.".

I thank Deputy Kerrane for her remarks. I acknowledge the great work she has put into this Bill and the intentions behind it. I know she has a keen interest in child maintenance issues and has discussed these matters with the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, previously.

This amendment is not about opposing the Bill but, rather, acknowledging that the matters it covers are currently under review by the child maintenance review group, allowing time for the group to conclude its work and allowing the Government time to consider the group's recommendations in their entirety rather than make piecemeal changes now.

Child maintenance is a hugely important issue for families where parents are not living together. We all know that people can experience difficulties under the current arrangements. That is why the Government set up a group to examine a number of aspects of the current system. The Bill aims to extend the liable relative provisions operated by the Department of Social Protection to the jobseeker's transitional payment. It is useful, therefore, to consider how those provisions operate currently.

One-parent family payment is means-tested for people who are parenting alone and whose youngest child is under seven years. Where a lone parent is in receipt of one-parent family payment, the liability to maintain the family provisions provide the Department of Social Protection with a legislative basis to carry out an assessment against the other parent and to issue a determination order for him or her to pay a contribution. A determination order is issued by post to the person notifying him or her of the contribution due. This also includes a means assessment outlining the basis of the determination order. The liable relative can request reassessment on the production of additional information. This order can be appealed to the Social Welfare Appeals Office within 21 days.

Certain categories of liable relative are not pursued due to personal circumstances or because they have low incomes which would result in a nil liability following a means assessment. When the provisions were first introduced any moneys received as a result of this assessment were paid directly to the Department. However, as this function evolved it was decided that the liable relative could instead pay the agreed amount directly to the one-parent family payment recipient as maintenance.

Where the liable relative makes the payment directly to the recipient of the one-parent family payment, it will be assessed as income in the means test for the recipient's payment and the level of his or her payment may be adjusted as a result. However, it is important to note that there are disregards in the means test which apply in the treatment of maintenance payments. For most schemes, where a person has housing costs, the amount of those costs up to a level of €95.23 per week is disregarded in the means test. Thereafter, the balance of the maintenance payment is assessed at 50%. If there are no housing costs, 50% of the maintenance payments is assessed.

I know that the treatment of maintenance within the social welfare system is another issue of great interest to Deputy Kerrane and other Members. It is one of the other issues being examined by the child maintenance review group. Under the liable relative provisions, the Department is not arranging maintenance but ensuring, where possible, that where there is a one-parent family payment in place and the other parent makes a financial contribution towards the cost to the State of providing that support. The liable relative provisions do not extend to the jobseeker's transitional payment. This is also a means-tested payment for people parenting alone but in this case the person's youngest child must be aged between seven and 14 years. The fact that the liable relative provisions do not extend to the jobseeker's transitional payment has led some to suggest that the obligation of the non-resident parent to pay child maintenance ceases when the child turns seven and the other parent moves from one-parent family payment to jobseeker's transitional payment. This is not the case and the Department of Social Protection advises people of that when arrangements under the provisions cease at that juncture.

Under existing family law legislation, parents, certain categories of guardian or those acting in the place of parents, who may be liable under the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015, are obliged to maintain their children. In cases where the family unit has broken down, these obligations continue to apply. Child maintenance arrangements can be agreed directly between the parties themselves or with the assistance of their solicitors, private mediators, supports such as the Family Mediation Service and the Legal Aid Board or, ultimately, through the Courts.

It is important to note that the liability to maintain family provisions contained in social welfare legislation are separate from, and do not negate or supersede, parents' obligations under family law. Deputies will recall that several significant reforms of the one-parent family payment were provided for in budget 2012. The major change was the reduction in the age threshold of a child in respect of whom a person can receive one-parent family payment. Originally, a person could receive one-parent family payment until his or her youngest child was 18 years, or 22 years if the child remained in full-time education. The reduction in the age threshold of the youngest child was implemented on a phased basis for all recipients during the period 2013 to 2015. Since the reforms have been fully implemented, a lone parent's entitlement to the one-parent family payment continues until his or her youngest child's seventh birthday, subject to the recipient continuing to satisfy the other eligibility requirements.

The jobseeker's transitional payment was introduced in 2015. This payment has almost identical eligibility rules as the one-parent family payment but the lone parent's youngest child must be aged over seven and under 14 to qualify for the payment.

Another difference between the two schemes is the subject of our debate this evening, that is, that the liable relative provisions do not apply to the jobseeker's transitional payment. There are no requirements for recipients of one-parent family payment or jobseeker's transitional payment to seek or engage in employment in order to qualify for the payments. Recipients are of course free to take up employment and there is an earnings disregard built into the means test for both schemes to facilitate that. The difference between the two schemes in this regard is that recipients of jobseeker's transitional payment are required to engage with the Department of Social Protection's Intreo service, whereas recipients of the one-parent family payment are not obliged to do so.

The Government established a child maintenance review group to examine certain issues in respect of child maintenance. The group is chaired by former Circuit Court Judge Catherine Murphy and includes legal, policy and academic professionals as well as officials from the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Justice. The establishment of this group is in line with the programme for Government which commits the Government to acting to reform our child maintenance system and address key issues such as calculations, facilitation and enforcement, guided by international best practice. The Government's actions in this regard are to be taken in light of the findings of the review. One of the terms of reference of the child maintenance review group is to examine the liable relative provisions operated by the Department of Social Protection. These are the very provisions which this Private Members' Bill is seeking to alter.

A public consultation process was undertaken in February and March last year. The submissions received are highly valued by the group and are informing its work. I am aware Deputy Kerrane made a submission that includes, amongst other things, a proposal to extend the liable relative provisions to jobseeker's transitional payment, as this Bill aims to do.

Submissions were received from a range of stakeholders, including other Members of the Oireachtas, NGOs and professional bodies. Although there were some common themes, not all raised the same issues and even where the same issues were raised it was sometimes from different perspectives. However, all were united in wanting to improve the current system. That is what we in Government want to do and what the Members of this House want to see happen.

It is the submissions from individual members of the public, many of whom wrote very openly about deeply personal issues, that really brought to life the difficulties people can experience within the current child maintenance system. Amongst the range of issues raised, people wrote about the difficulties they experienced in attending court, the hardship caused when expected payments do not materialise and the heartache caused by the intertwining of maintenance and access issues.

I understand the chair of the group has advised the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, that the report is expected to be submitted to her by Easter. I am conscious Deputy Kerrane and others are very keen to see the group's report but given the importance and complexity of the issues involved it is reasonable for the group to spend some additional time on its deliberations. It would be inappropriate to make changes to these provisions in advance of the group concluding its deliberations and reporting to the Minister. The Government considers that we should await the outcome of the review and consider its recommendations in their entirety before making any changes in this area. We cannot and should not pre-empt what those recommendations might be. That is why we have tabled this timed amendment, to allow time, as I have said, for the report to be completed and for the Government to consider its findings and recommendations.

Maintenance is a complex issue, even within the social welfare system. In addition to examining the liable relative provisions, the group is also tasked with examining the treatment of maintenance payments in the social welfare system and whether or not there is a case for a child maintenance agency in Ireland. As part of its work the group is also considering the international position. There are a variety of approaches in other jurisdictions. It is difficult to make comparisons because each country operates a system which operates within the parameters of its own social welfare and legal system and these vary greatly. Some jurisdictions, such as Northern Ireland, operate a child maintenance service. This is the model Deputy Kerrane and others would like to see replicated here. By contrast, in New Zealand, it is the Inland Revenue that is primarily involved in the determination, operation and enforcement of child support payments. Although we cannot expect it would simply be possible to replicate a system that operates in another country, it is useful to examine other systems and how they work.

The Government is committed to improving the entire family law system. That is of course much broader than child maintenance but any improvements in that system will nevertheless be of benefit to people who need to go to court over child maintenance issues. In September 2020 the Government set up the family justice oversight group. It has been tasked with driving progress on the development of a national family justice service. It also ran a public consultation process last year and its work is ongoing. The programme for Government contains a commitment to enact a Family Courts Bill to create a new dedicated family court within the existing court structure and provide for court procedures that support a less adversarial resolution of disputes. The overall aim is to change the culture so the focus of the family justice system meets the complex needs of people who need help with family justice issues. I understand the drafting of that Bill is well advanced.

As I said at the outset, child maintenance is a hugely important and complex issue. The Government is aware of the difficulties people can experience and we are committed to reforming the system. However, it is important we allow the child maintenance review group time to continue its work and allow the Government to consider its recommendations before making any changes in this regard. I look forward to hearing the contributions to this debate and again acknowledge the work Deputy Kerrane has put into the Bill and the intentions behind it. I am aware she has a keen interest in child maintenance issues and thank her for her remarks this evening.

Deputy Martin Kenny

I begin by commending Deputy Kerrane on this legislation that clearly sets out to improve the situation for people who very often find themselves in dire poverty and in very serious situations. Lone parents are, as has previously been said, one of the groups in our society who often find it difficult to survive and manage on a very low income.

I was reading the Minister of State's speech and was quite alarmed when he referred to the changes that happened between 2013 and 2015 as "reforms". For those who experienced those changes they were not a reform that was positive but one that was very negative because it removed income from a huge number of people across the length and breadth of the country. I remember being contacted at the time by many lone parents who were devastated by the situation they found themselves in when their payments were taken away from them simply because their child had got a little older. In most cases their children had got a little more expensive to keep, yet the State found its way to doing this. If that is what the Minister of State considers reform then we hope the next review will be a damn sight better than the last time Government called it reform.

We have legislation that was, as Deputy Kerrane mentioned, brought forward by Fianna Fáil, I think about three or four years ago. It is ironic that in the particular marriage the parties have over on the Government side of the House this legislation is clearly a lone child with a lone parent that is not being embraced by all parties of Government. It is now being dealt with the same way it was when Fianna Fáil proposed the legislation. The Government is kicking it down the road and kicking it to touch. This set of people are in very dire circumstances. Everybody acknowledges that and the Minister of State acknowledged in his own speech that there is a dire need to change the situation in place at the moment because the system simply does not work for so many people. We are in a context of rising costs for everyone. Home heating oil, transport and all those costs are rising for everybody across society and are especially acute for people on the edge of the poverty line, which is particularly the case for loan parents. Despite this, the Government decides that rather than taking this Bill for the small improvement it would make, embracing it and running with it, it will instead kick it down the road for six months. We all know even if the Minister of State decided to accept it now it would be six months at least before it would be enacted and in place. We are talking about over a year or maybe much longer before we see a situation where the changes required in this Bill come into force.

The other point concerns the courts system and the huge trauma it is. I deal all the time with people who come to me and have had that experience from all walks of life. They have found the court experience very difficult. It is mainly women. These women may be in a situation where they have a child and there was possibly a break-up from what has often been an abusive relationship. They find themselves having to go to court and having to go through all that again. They know full well the chances of getting maintenance from the person who has abandoned them with their child is very low, but that they must go to court to get the assistance of the State is an indictment of the State's position in regard to this. It needs to be reconsidered, and very quickly. I recently came across the case of a lone parent in my and the Minister of State's constituency. She is a young woman with a child who has a disability. She explained the situation to me. She talked to me about getting services for the child. She talked about the difficulty she had in that she was trying to manage on the lone parent payment and fighting all the time to get services in the school for her child and to get her child to appointments for this, that and the other. Everything she faced in her life was a struggle. It is a battle. The Minister of State comes across the very same type of people on a regular basis. We have legislation in front of us that can do something about that. It is not going to put a huge cost on the State. We are not talking about creating some difficulty here.

Rather, we are discussing something that could relieve a little of the stress for a young woman in such circumstances who has to go to court to try to get some maintenance or has to try to get a lone parent payment from the State. It is a scandal that the Minister of State would suggest in the Chamber that the right thing to do would be to give this more time. People in these situations do not have the time to wait for them to be resolved and they do not resolve themselves. These people live in anguish and poverty as they try to survive and battle day in, day out. Those of us who are in a better position should at least have the common decency and humanity to do something about it. Here we have an opportunity to do so but the Government is refusing. That is difficult to take.

I suggest that the Minister of State speak to his colleagues in Fianna Fáil, who were the first ones to propose this legislation, and work out a solution and that the Government reconsider the matter, drop its amendment and allow the Bill to move forward. Getting it through the Houses will take a great deal of time. By the time it enters into force, the report, which is supposed to be published at Easter, will be on the table for consideration. If it is a sensible report constructed by sensible people, then it will reach the conclusion that every other sensible person has reached and say that we need to do something about this situation and deliver fully for people in these circumstances.

Deputy Mairéad Farrell

I commend my colleague Deputy Kerrane on introducing this important legislation. It is unfortunate that the Government has decided to kick the can down the road for six months. I understand that there is the child maintenance review group. While it is welcome that something is being done, these people need help right now. The Government has form, in that when practical measures are being proposed by the Opposition, they often fall on deaf ears.

From our clinics and speaking to our constituents, family members and neighbours, we all know how difficult many lone parents have it when going through the courts. Any practical and simple step like the one suggested by Deputy Kerrane in her Bill and as previously proposed by Fianna Fáil, and that would provide these people with assistance, should be taken as a matter of urgency. We have had many debates in the Chamber about the increase in the cost of living and we are all acutely aware of the pressures that people face. We are now discussing people who are at risk of poverty or, as in many cases, are already in poverty and we need to do everything we can to help them.

The Minister of State and others have mentioned how this approach is being taken in other places, including the North. My colleague, Deputy Kerrane, has been talking about it for many years. It is not new, but it can be done in a practical and easy way. For people who are in such a difficult situation and have to go through the courts - that in itself is difficult, including in terms of the outcomes - this practical approach could work for them and make payments more accessible. Just this week, one such parent who attended my clinic said how difficult the entire process was. It can be difficult, as it is not something that people would be used to.

It is unfortunate that the Bill is not being accepted this moment and is being put back for six months. I suggest that the amendment be removed at the end of those six months. It is not the first time that this proposal has been before the Dáil. It should have been enacted as soon as it was proposed. It is a simple measure to make matters easier for people. We should all be here to propose as many practical and simple solutions as possible to make life easier for people. That is what they have elected us to do.

I commend my colleague Deputy Kerrane on introducing this Bill and, like Deputy Martin Kenny, I urge the Minister of State to reconsider his amendment.

Deputy Thomas Gould

Like my colleagues, I congratulate Deputy Kerrane on introducing this Bill and on her Trojan work in representing lone parents as Sinn Féin's spokesperson on social protection. Her Bill would be a step towards ending the victimisation of lone parents and stop them being forced to go to court, which is hard on people physically, mentally and financially. They have to take time off work, organise childcare and travel. All of this adds up, especially in contentious situations where there can be multiple court cases. Do lone parents who are trying to raise their kids need to be put under this pressure? I think not, and neither does Deputy Kerrane. This Bill would only be a small step in the greater scheme of things where social protection is concerned. For lone parents, though, it would be an important one.

This is not just about the money. It is also about having to go through a court system because of Government bureaucracy. We are forcing people into confrontations that they do not want and they realistically should not have to pursue. If the system works for the first seven years, it is nonsensical to change it for the next seven.

While we wait for a proper child maintenance collection agency, we need to take the burden off the lone parent. The way that Governments have treated unmarried mothers and other lone parents has been a great shame. We should have learned from it. Instead, thanks to failed Government policies and failures by Governments to care, one in every five lone parent families is in constant poverty.

A single mother contacted me last week about the cost of living. She works every hour God sends her and all the overtime she can get. She is not entitled to any State support whatsoever. She worked 17 days straight. When she looked at her bank account at the end of that, she had just €2 left after paying all of her bills. She gets no support from the State. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have failed people like her. When the current Tánaiste announced that he would be a leader for the people who got up early every morning, he was not talking about this lady. He might have been talking about the well-to-do, the cuckoo funds and big investors. He was not talking about how he would be a leader for ordinary people like bus drivers, secretaries, nurses, teachers and shop assistants who get up early in the morning. If he was, then he, the Government and the Minister of State would not be postponing this Bill.

Sinn Féin has a vision for an Ireland of equals. Deputy Kerrane's Bill shows that we are willing to achieve this. We are proposing a solution. All Deputies are elected to this Chamber to make a difference in people's lives. Sometimes, we can make big differences. Sometimes, we feel that the Government makes no difference. This Bill would make a small difference for lone parents and their children. That is what it is about. We are here to deliver. We are legislators and this is legislation, but instead of taking the opportunity to help the most vulnerable, the Government is kicking the Bill down the road. That is shameful.

Minister of State at the Department of Health (Deputy Frankie Feighan)

I thank Deputies Kerrane, Martin Kenny, Mairéad Farrell and Gould for their contributions on this debate and for their interest in this important topic. We have had a useful debate. We all understand the importance of child maintenance and want to improve the system. The liable relative provisions that are operated by the Department of Social Protection are just one element of that system.

I reiterate the Government's commitment to reform of the child maintenance system. It was because of this commitment that the Government established the child maintenance review group. The group has been tasked with considering and making recommendations on the current treatment of child maintenance payments by the Department of Social Protection, the current provision with regard to liable relatives, managed by the Department of Social Protection, and the establishment of a child maintenance agency in Ireland. As I mentioned earlier, the work of the group is being informed by the submissions, inclusive of the one made by Deputy Kerrane's party, to the consultation process. The group is also examining the international position. I acknowledge that the group was due to report to the Minister last year. Deputy Kerrane and many others, including many Deputies on the Government benches, are keen to find out what the group will recommend. We are advised that the report is expected to be presented to the Minister by Easter. I hope it is progressed as quickly as possible.

The Bill aims to extend the liable relative provisions operated by the Department of Social Protection to the jobseeker's transitional payment, a set of provisions expressly covered by the group's terms of reference. It is reasonable for us to await the outcome of the group's work to see what recommendations it might make in regard to the liable relative provisions and its other terms of reference. We must allow the group to complete its work. In taking action now in regard to a set of provisions which the group was specifically tasked to examine, we would be undermining the group and its work. The Government will also need an opportunity to reflect on the group's recommendations before deciding how to move forward. There are inter-linkages between issues being examined by the group and so it is prudent to wait and consider the group's recommendations as a whole. This is preferable to making changes in this area without knowing what recommendations the group might make not just in regard to the liable relative provisions but the other matters under its remit.

A number of Deputies referred to this Bill having been introduced on previous occasions. In 2018 and 2019, there was no child maintenance review in place. That is a key difference between then and now. The liable relative provisions do not make maintenance arrangements for people and provisions are intended to arrange a contribution to the cost of the one-parent family payment. The efforts to seek maintenance provisions which Deputies mentioned are separate provisions and these are also being reviewed by the child maintenance review group.

The Government is acutely aware of the high rates of poverty experienced by lone parents. We have introduced a number of budget measures to assist those families. The rate for a qualified child has been increased to €40 per week for children under 12 and by €48 per week for children over 12. The income limit for the working family payment has been increased and will be further increased by €10 per week for all family sizes from April. Approximately half of all recipients of this payment are lone parents. The earnings limit was removed from the one-parent family payment last year. This removed a cliff edge for lone parents as their earnings increased.

I again thank Deputy Kerrane for bringing the Bill before the House. I thank all Deputies for their contributions on this important issue. I look forward to future debates on this and related issues. I will bring Deputy Kerrane's views and concerns to the attention of the Minister. As rightly stated by the Deputy, we are all awaiting this report. I hope it will be presented to the Minister by Easter.

Deputy Claire Kerrane

I thank the Minister of State. On the amendment and the proposal, this day six months will bring us to the end of August. At that time, the Dáil will be in recess and will not return until the end of September, and we will then be into the budgetary cycle.

This report was due at the end of last year. It is now, we are told, to be published by Easter. If it is published by Easter, which I expect it will be, there should be no excuse or reason to delay this until more or less the end of next year. The other issue is that will have implications for the budget. Should this review group report at Easter that we need a statutory child maintenance service, whatever form it may take and whatever country we make look to mirror, we will need to see steps for the establishment of that service taken in the next budget rather than having to wait another year. Lone parents and their families have waited long enough.

The Minister of State referred to the one-parent family payment and the jobseeker's transition payment and the differences in that regard. However, he did not say why the liable relative unit does not seek a contribution when the lone parent moves on to the jobseeker's transition payment, why maintenance is being treated as household income when it should be taken as income for the child and why it is proposed to continue to pressure lone parents into court in order to seek maintenance. I presume the Minister of State does not believe it is right that lone parents should have to go to court in the first instance to seek maintenance in order to receive a social welfare payment. That is extraordinary; it should not happen. We should not in the first instance need a child maintenance review group to tell us that that is very wrong.

The Minister of State referred to the so-called adjustment whereby a contribution is sought. As I said, this is basically the Department of Social Protection seeking to recoup its own costs as regards the one-parent family payment in that the level of the payment is reduced and not, as the Minister of State put it, adjusted.

The Minister of State also spoke about the disregard of €95 for housing costs. When rents in Dublin are €2,000 per month or €500 per week, again, that disregard is totally inadequate. Furthermore, the Minister of State mentioned the financial contribution that is made towards the State. The State should be seeking a contribution for maintenance for the benefit of the child or children and not to recoup its own costs.

The Minister of State recalled the significant reforms to the one-parent family payment. I recall that those significant reforms had a devastating impact on lone parent families. The Minister of State does not have to take our word for that. We saw it a number of years ago in an amendment through social welfare legislation on the basis of an Indecon report which showed that the significant reforms had a major impact on lone parent families and it put more of them into deprivation and poverty. That was the impact of the significant reforms, as the Minister of State referred to them. That was proven.

The Minister of State went on to speak about the importance of allowing time for the child maintenance review group to do its work. As I said, the issue in terms of this legislation has been going on since 2018. There has indeed been plenty of time. The Minister of State also said that we need to wait to see if there is a case or not for a child maintenance agency in Ireland. How can we need a maintenance review group to tell us if it is right to send lone parents into courtrooms in order to seek maintenance to allow them to keep a weekly social welfare payment which, in some cases, is the only weekly payment they get? We know they are living in poverty and we know the deprivation they experience. We should not have needed a maintenance review group to tell us that and nor should we have needed a maintenance review group to tell us that child maintenance should not be treated as household means. That should not continue.

While the amendment in regard to the six months, which, clearly, the Government is not going to move on, is disappointing, I would ask that should the report be ready at Easter, as is expected, the Government would look at it immediately rather than in August or September, which is basically the end of the year. If it recommends that we need a statutory child maintenance agency, then we need to move on that in the next budget and not kick the can down the road. I ask the Minister of State to bring to the Minister my request that between now and receipt of the review group report pressure would be taken off lone parents in terms of them being forced into courtrooms to seek that maintenance. We could do that without waiting on the maintenance review group report because that is wrong and it should not happen. We should be able to do that regardless.

Amendment put.

An Ceann Comhairle

Insofar as a vote has been called, it stands deferred until the voting time next week.

Cuireadh an Dáil ar athló ar 6.40 p.m. go dtí 2 p.m., Dé Máirt, an 1 Márta 2022.

The Dáil adjourned at 6.40 p.m. until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, 1 March 2022.