David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

The Minister has said this is a very important issue and that it is right that we proceed carefully. A number of issues arise. I was told by a lady recently that her son and his girlfriend wanted to get married but they found out that they would lose out financially if they did. There are other issues tied up with this one. On the issue of work, a lone parent with a 14 month old boy visited me recently. She returned to work for 14 hours a week but for some reason was unable to receive family income supplement, while her rent supplement was reduced because she was earning. As a result, she got into debt and experienced various problems. The poverty levels among lone parents are high compared to those in the general population and the level of indebtedness is something about which we should be concerned also. Am I correct in saying the earliest this measure will be introduced is in the Social Welfare Bill next year?

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