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LAST UPDATE | 27 Jan
IN NEWS THAT will come as no surprise to anyone, raising kids is expensive. Groundbreaking, I know.
Recent research revealed that the average cost of raising a child in Ireland until they finish third-level education can be as much as €250,000 although personally, I feel that last year’s Christmas Wish Lists came in just shy of that. A majority of parents surveyed also admitted to putting too much pressure on themselves to give their kids everything.
Not only are the basic essentials devastatingly expensive, but surely it’s natural to want to do better for our kids, and improve on what we had growing up. Surely the whole point of everything is that we keep advancing and enhancing for the next generation?
Well, not everyone agrees. In fact, Ireland has one of the lowest rates of child maintenance payments. At the beginning of 2024, then Minister for Justice Helen McEntee said that non-payment of maintenance was a “common problem and the current enforcement options available are limited in scope and impact”, as she published a report which set out 26 recommendations for improving the current system of maintenance and enforcement orders.
The report stated that parents have a responsibility to provide a certain standard of living for their children and that the state should take all appropriate measures to ensure maintenance is provided for all children. Plenty of promises were made at the time, but very little has happened since.
The report reviewed practices undertaken by other countries and ranked their effectiveness. One of the biggest gaps in our system is that we don’t have a department established to chase those who refuse to pay, which would be paid for through fines issued to those same people.
The processes used by these departments vary from country to country, but they typically have the power to deduct maintenance from wages, bank accounts or social welfare payments. They can backdate missed payments and even remove passports and driving licences, in extreme cases.
It all sounds so simple, and when other countries have already drawn up the policies, it’s hard to understand why we haven’t made any progress in the last 12 months. Lone parents are already under pressure raising children in this modern age. It’s tough, it’s challenging. In cases when the court-agreed maintenance payment is not forthcoming, it adds a massive extra layer of worry and financial pressure to one parent. The onus is often on that parent to follow up officially to address the problem. That’s a lot for one person to have to shoulder. When rent and crèche fees are soaring, is it really acceptable for Irish society to ignore the number of families where one person has to absorb full financial responsibility?
The 2022 census figures recorded 182,395 one-parent families living in private households across the country, and almost 90% of these families are headed by women. We effectively lock these women out of the workforce due to inefficient policy, and then we wonder why we can’t make progress in solving the issues. These are the very voices who need to be making the legislation.
If we genuinely care for the welfare of children in this country, these issues must be addressed and the proper resources must be allocated. This will not only benefit children and families but also enable government bodies to work more effectively.
If someone is refusing to pay maintenance, they shouldn’t be able to receive a full social welfare payment or social housing.
If a lone parent fails to pay a gas bill, he or she is hauled through a process, the same goes for any outstanding debt. If a person’s credit history is checked during the mortgage approval process, then why would someone with two years of non-payment of maintenance receive a council house? Especially when the same council is competing with families during the buying process. Make it make sense.
We need immediate legislation and real consequences for non-payment. A simple, standardised process is long overdue, and someone has to be held accountable for the lack of action following the report last year. It would be hoped that this will be one of the priorities for Jim O’Callaghan, our new Minister of Justice. Non-payment of maintenance is child neglect and should always be treated as such. It is a criminal matter, and we can no longer rest the burden on the already heavy shoulders of the lone parent.
Margaret Lynch is TheJournal.ie’s parenting columnist.
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