Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)

I thank the Minister for his reply. Can we all accept that the best route out of poverty is through work, a proposition which is a mantra at this stage? Is it not ironic that some of the barriers to employment for lone parents and many other parents on low income have been put in place by the Minister's Department and by policy decisions taken in the Department, not by the Minister but by his predecessors in title? Will the Minister agree that some of the savage 16 cuts raised the barrier for self-sufficiency for single parents and extenuated their circumstances? The cuts were tinkered with but were not reversed.

Will the Minister agree that the abolition of the creche supplement, which allowed single parents to take up educational and training opportunities was a retrograde step? Will he agree that the cutback in the Back to Education scheme curtailed another important opportunity? There was a restriction on entitlement to the one parent family payment for those in receipt of modest earnings. There were also rent allowance restrictions.

Will the Minister agree that many lone parents and low income families will find to difficult to return to employment without assistance in terms of child care? Will he also agree that for low income earners and one parent families child care can cost all the income earned and leave such families no better off than when the parent is not working?

In respect of the one parent family payment, will he agree the income disregard which allowed lone parents to work and earn up to €146.50 was innovative? That was introduced in 1996 and people can earn up to €293 before losing that entitlement. Why was that disregard not increased? Surely the best way to tackle poverty is to ensure that as many people as possible qualify for benefit during their transition to work and that they do not lose their entitlement to ancillary benefits such as the Back to School allowance, clothing and footwear allowance, medical cards and others benefits? Is it not time we gave some substance to all the aspirational talk and ensured that those disregards, which are important in facilitating the transition from dependence on those welfare schemes to work, are all raised to facilitate that ultimately noble objective?

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