Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As we are up against the clock I will make some brief points. First, I was interested to hear that the Department did not commission the Millar report. I am at a loss to know what difference that makes but the fact is that the Millar report is very critical of the system as it currently operates and states specifically that it requires revision.

Second, I believe it was Mr. Egan, in reply to Deputy Collins, who referred to the SPARK matrix and said that there had been some changes. I have the matrix from a week ago, taking into account the change in the minimum wage, etc., and the losses are still substantial. There is only a marginal difference between those and the figures quoted by Deputy Collins.

In his reply to Deputy Higgins on the suggestion from SPARK that jobseeker's transition and FIS should be paid together, Mr. Egan stated that the marginal benefit would be only 20% of the wages. I presume the intention from SPARK was that the jobseeker's transition would not be counted in the assessment of the FIS. What is the point in introducing an extra payment and then counting it in the means test for the other payment they are getting?

I note that the vast majority of the people on FIS were on FIS and the one parent family allowance before the changes were introduced. They are now on FIS alone, plus their employment. Beforehand, they were employed, had the one parent family allowance and FIS. The one parent family allowance is gone, and FIS has increased, but it has only increased by 60% of what was the one parent family payment. It is a weak argument to make that if that does not bring them below the poverty line, it is all right. It certainly brings them a lot closer to the poverty line than the position they were in previously.

The case was made consistently in the Dáil by the previous Minister about the need to activate lone parents, deactivation measures, etc. Linking lone parents, as they were, to the activation system did not require all these changes. They did not have to be put on jobseeker's transition or whatever. They could have been linked in anyway.