Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

It might come as a shock to Members that some of us in this House in the early days received net pay equivalent to that of a man and a wife and four children who was on the dole. It was not nice. We had the experience of putting cardboard into the soles of shoes. No one should lecture us about bringing us back to reality; we know all about the hardship. We feel it intensely at this time.

Deputy Boyd Barrett made a valid point about lone parents: they want to work. All the lone parents I ever dealt with had an urge to work and scrounge and scrape to do whatever they could for their child or children. At all times I stand by their right to make their case. Do not let us have this nonsense, however, of using the Government as the whipping boy and pretending no one understands, except someone sitting on the Opposition benches.

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