Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Apologies; I had to depart for a while. Ironically, the discussion in the Dáil currently is about the means testing of carer's allowance and the potential for a participation income. I have a few questions and some general observations.

Previously, I made the point in the abstract that if one has a properly progressive system of taxation and one can look at it in terms of two lines, it does not make sense to have one line going in one direction and the other line going in a different direction with many people in the middle left without any, or a limited, relationship with the social welfare system. I would also be of the view that if one has a social welfare system that is exclusively or primarily for the poor, one will have a poor social welfare system.

There is much in the submission papers that is worth considering. I have saved them and intend to return to them at a later day.

Coming to Dr. Dukelow, first of all, the graphs in her submission are interesting. This might have been touched on when I was out. The graphs are following opposite trends but I am wondering what is the cause of those trends. Is it a function of the current levels of employment, is it a function of inflation or is it maybe a mixture of both?

I agree the cliff-edge that exists for lone parents who are on the working family payment is huge. It is a point I have raised. It is potentially a loss over the course of a month of well over €200. For some individuals, that is a huge loss for them and for their families. It is not a small number of people either. According to a PQ reply I received, there are 5,631 working family claimants who are also claiming the one-parent family payment. It is a substantial number of people and I think there is a cliff-edge. A further cliff-edge for lone parents of 14-year-olds has been flagged as well. There are two cliff-edges. It was one of the worst cuts of the recessionary period and it did an awful lot of harm to single-parent families. I know people will point to the transitional payment, but for those who are working who are not necessarily in low-income jobs because they are on the working family payment, that is a big loss to their income. I very much agree with that.

What is tricky in trying to figure this all out is how one unscrambles an egg. Bit by bit was added over the course of decades. What is beneficial about this exercise is that we are trying to step back from the system and look at what kind of system one might wish to have.

The fact that there are different types of means test was highlighted. Where a person whose partner is on a contributory pension chooses to apply for a non-contributory pension in his or her own right as opposed to as a qualified adult on the partner's payment, a marginally different means test is applied. It is not an enormous difference but there are some differences, including around how savings are calculated.

Incidentally, Dr. Griffin highlighted Deputies as being real experts. It is never a bad strategy to come here and flatter Deputies but I will correct him by saying that it is our constituency secretaries who are the real experts. I am always astonished by how expert the people who work for me.