Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Some farms are doing better but other farms will not have done as well. That is the nature of farming but it is a substantial drop in a year in terms of farm assist.

On the redundancy and insolvency section, which I believe falls under the working age income supports, RTE ran a story about the recovery of redundancy debt and suggested that in 2011, for instance, only a very small portion of the €300 million outstanding was recovered; it had the figure at 4% or 5%. It has increased since then but upwards of €200 million or €300 million, which is a substantial amount, is outstanding to the State. If that was in any other field the State would have a programme through which to recover it. The criticism in the RTE programme was that the Department did not have a strategy by which to pursue this recovery. Part of the reason for that is because employers were allowed state that they had an inability to pay but that inability to pay was never fully investigated. That is money the State should be pursuing as rigorously as it pursues those wrongfully claiming allowances.

I am concerned about lone parents as all research continues to show that they are a section of our society experiencing major disadvantage and poverty yet we have seen a significant fall in spending on lone parents to a level of 11.8%. That is the equivalent of a fall in spending of €115 million.

Is the Minister concerned about the impact this is having on those lone parents in particular?