Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I have enjoyed listening to Deputy Burke for the last ten minutes. I wish him well and I hope when he returns to Galway tomorrow night that he is still in good form.

I am pleased to speak on the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisons) Bill 2010. I make so secret of my admiration for the work of the Minister and I wish him well. One of the Minister's first acts as Minister for Social Protection was to visit Tallaght, where I live. I was delighted to welcome him the Fettercairn Community Centre to meet a group of people who did not spare him and told him exactly how they felt and what he should do. I suspect the Minister enjoyed the occasion. It was great to have him come to Tallaght. People were pleased to have the opportunity to tell him how they felt about social welfare. I will return to this in my remarks tomorrow.

The core business of the Department, which is the provision of a range of income supports, impacts on the lives of almost every person in the State, including many in my Dublin constituency. Almost 1.4 million people, each week, claim a social welfare payment. When qualified adults and children are included, a total of almost 2.1 million people benefit from a weekly payment. More than 600,000 families receive child benefit payment in respect of more than 1.2 million children each month.

As the Minister stated earlier today - and I compliment on his speech - the Bill contains many technical amendments to existing social welfare legislation. It also provides for changes to the one-parent family payment, and this is what I would like to speak about for the next few minutes.

I know many lone parents, in my own constituency and in the wider community. The new proposals in the Bill, which will be phased in over time, are of particular interest to me for that reason. These new proposals will, I hope, help one-parent families get out of the poverty cycle, which many of them are in. The cycle of poverty is detrimental and cannot continue. I hope the Minister will give careful consideration to that fact.

The number of claimants receiving the payment from the Department rose from 59,000 in 1997 to 91,300 at the end of April this year, a 55% increase. I understand that 98% of these claimants are women. Despite significant State spending on one-parent families, as well as improvements to the one-parent family payment by successive Fianna Fáil Ministers, the results have been poor in tackling poverty and social inclusion and encouraging economic independence. The cost of the one-parent family payment scheme in 2009 was €1.2 billion.

A large proportion of lone parents and their children continue to experience poverty. The latest figures available show that in 2008, almost 18% of lone parents were experiencing consistent poverty, compared to 3% of two-parent households and a little over 4% of the population as a whole.

The best route out of poverty is through paid employment. Work, and especially full-time work, may not be an option for parents of young children. However, supporting parents to participate in the labour market, once their children have reached an appropriate age, will improve their own economic situation and the social well-being of themselves and their families.

This is the one issue about which people are contacting me. Lone parents are asking what will be done about their concerns, who will look after their children and what will happen in this regard. The Minister must engage with these people and given them clear assurances as to how they will be assisted.

The Government believes the current arrangement whereby a lone parent can receive the one-parent family payment until their child is 18, or 22 if in full-time education, without any requirement for the parent to engage in employment, education or training, is not in the best interest of the recipient, their children or society. Despite State spending in this area, the results have been poor in tackling poverty, with the child of a lone parent being four times more likely to be in consistent poverty than the population overall. This is something we should be deeply concerned about on all sides of the House.

For new customers, from 2011 it is proposed that the one-parent family payment will be made until the youngest child reaches 13. I am told there will be a six year tapered phasing out period for existing customers. Like other colleagues, I welcome this. The vast majority of new customers for the one-parent family payment are parents of new-born babies. Therefore, the change in the payment from April 2011 will not affect them until 2024, when their child reaches their 13th birthday. A cut-off point of seven years was recommended in the 2006 Government discussion paper proposals for supporting lone parents.

I am told the new proposals will bring Ireland's support for lone parents more in line with international provisions, where there is a general movement away from long-term and passive income support. A number of countries do precisely that.

I look forward to continuing the debate tomorrow.

See this speech in context