Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank the officials for coming. This measure was introduced in 2012 and there have been more anomalies and holes in it than Swiss cheese. The more I look at it, the more it looks like single parents were targeted for political reasons. Deputy Joan Collins touched on what it was all about. As she said, next year the income of a lone parent who is working 20 hours a week and in receipt of social welfare payments will be down by 18%. If that is intended to remove people from poverty, it has been completely ill-thought out. I do not know who is thinking this stuff up and would like the issue to be addressed.

Deputies Joan Collins and Willie O'Dea mentioned the child maintenance issue. It throws up many questions, with parents having to chase up others who leave the scene.

I did not read all of the Miller report, but it categorically states labour activation measures ultimately do not work; therefore, somebody has got the policy wrong. Single parents are exposed to consistent poverty which this attack on them has compounded. Somebody has to ask questions about why this is happening because in the past four years we have gone backwards rather than forwards. Single parents will say there had to be changes to the OFPA, but, overall, everything that has been put in place has been detrimental to them.