Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I might not use all the time available to me. Like previous speakers I welcome the changes announced by the Minister, especially to the jobseeker's allowance for parents who no longer qualify for a one-parent family payment due to their youngest child reaching the upper age limit. The unemployment transition is a significant and progressive development in a long series of welfare initiatives intended to support families at risk of poverty. In the past 30 years, income support payments were reformed in response to gender equality legislation and to reflect the significant shifts in female labour market participation and social attitudes to the role of women. Measures to encourage lone parents and women married to welfare recipients to take up employment were also introduced in a renewed effort to combat and prevent poverty. Members have different views on the issue but findings, both national and international, are almost unequivocal in stating that employment offers the best protection against poverty. That is very important, most especially to those of us who are part of the labour movement. The jobseeker's transition recognises the challenges in combining full-time paid work and caring when parenting alone and the inadequacies in the current supply of child and after-school care places while at the same time maintaining the goal to lift lone parent families out of poverty through employment.

Many views were expressed following last year's budget and especially on the social welfare Bill. I acknowledge the Minister's response to those who were in favour of reforming the system. I commend the Minister in that regard. Nobody can take that from her. Some Members were critical of proceeding with the reduction of the upper age limit when there are so few jobs available. We all recognise that. However, I take a different view because such a mindset belongs to our less enlightened past. Lone parents should have the same rights and responsibilities to compete for jobs and to secure a better quality of life for themselves and their children.

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