asked the Minister for Social Welfare the measures, if any, his Department take to locate those husbands who have deserted their wives; and the action, if any, which is taken against these husbands; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

One of the conditions for receipt of a deserted wife's payment is that a wife must make reasonable efforts within the means available to her to trace her husband's whereabouts and to prevail on him to contribute to the support and maintenance of herself and her children.

In addition to such efforts as the wife may be able to make to trace her husband, the Department may also make their own enquiries in the course of the investigation of the claim and would normally do so in the event of the wife not being able to trace her husband. The Department's investigating officer endeavours to interview the husband in all cases before completing his report.

Once the husband's whereabouts are known, his wife is then required to endeavour to obtain maintenance where the husband's circumstances would allow for such maintenance. Where appropriate she would normally be required to initiate maintenance proceedings against him in the District Court before a deserted wife's payment would be authorised.

There are no provisions in the legislation at present which allow the Department to take any particular action against the husband. Proposals to amend the legislation to enable the Department to take such action, where appropriate, are being finalised by my Department. I would hope to have the necessary amendments included in the forthcoming Social Welfare Bill.

I thank the Minister for his reply. I would encourage him to have his Department take on the responsibility of trying to trace a deserting husband or now — in the case of the new allowance — a deserting wife, as the case may be. Would the Minister agree with me when I say that the person who has been deserted will not be in a position financially or mentally, to go through the trauma and difficulty of endeavouring to trace their spouse? Further, I ask the Minister if his Department's investigations include contacting the authorities in other countries with a view to seeing whether or not the person in question is either working or drawing social welfare payments in other countries?

The social welfare officer will cross-check with any of the sources available in the country. I cannot say the extent to which checks are made with other countries but I appreciate the point made by the Deputy. It is a major problem. It is my intention to give the Department the authority to pursue the spouse who is deserting because the other spouse is often left with the children and very little resources and unable to do much about it. We will have an opportunity to discuss this further.

This is now one of the biggest abuses of social welfare. Husbands are deserting wives and going to the UK and staying there for six months; the wife is paid deserted wife's benefit which she is entitled to; the husband then comes back and may be living down the road with another woman and is paid his social welfare benefit in his own right but is making no contribution to the upkeep of his family.

A question, please.

I would suggest that the way to deal with this would be to have a computerised system of social welfare PRSI which could be dealt with through the UK and through the Department so that the husband who deserts his wife will have to make a contribution to his family.

The Court Clerk can often initiate proceedings if the whereabouts can be established, for instance, in Great Britain. Sometimes it is even taken as far as the US but with much less likelihood of success. We can discuss this in the context of the Social Welfare Bill and we can discuss the various ways that things can be tightened up once the Department have the authority to pursue on behalf of the deserted spouse.

I just want to clarify the last question. Would the Minister regard as an abuse of the system the fact that a deserted wife is in receipt of deserted wife's benefit and children's allowance, if she has children, and the husband is also in receipt of social welfare benefit? That is not an abuse of the system. That is the correct use of the system.

It raises the question of the husband making an appropriate contribution towards the upkeep of the children.

The point surely is that under the social welfare system the husband will not get any more than he is entitled to.

We are also going to pursue that under the separate payments heading.