Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)

I was somewhat surprised by the Minister's opening contribution in the Chamber this evening when she announced her intention to implement the cut reducing to seven years the age limit for the lone parent allowance but stated she recognises that seven is too young to be left without a backup in respect of adequate child care. It is too young for a parent to make the first steps back to the workplace and too young for the same parent to return to education or training. The Minister stated: "I entirely agree that seven is too young for anyone to seriously contemplate any of these things without there being a system of safe, affordable and accessible child care in place, similar to what is found in the Scandinavian countries." As the previous speaker pointed out, Members have heard this for years but the Minister proposes to try to ascertain whether it can be brought in within two years. I put it to her this simply is a way to maintain the Government's commitment to the troika on cuts and savings while at the same time covering the Minister's political base and alleviating the pressure that was being brought to bear on her by organisations such as Barnardos, the National Women's Council of Ireland and OPEN. Such groups seemingly had good contacts previously with the Minister with regard to the lone parent payments and so on. Deputy Ó Snodaigh also made some excellent points on comments made by former backbenchers in the Dáil while in opposition about cuts to the lone parent allowance and how it would affect badly that group of people and children.

Ultimately, only approximately €7.6 million will be saved by this cut because within the space of a few years, the age limit has been reduced from nearly 18 in 2010 to seven years by 2014. I consider this to constitute the virtual abolition of the lone parent allowance and is yet another attack on a group of people who are known to be particularly vulnerable. The European Union's survey of income and living conditions in 2009 showed that in Ireland, 16.6% of lone-parent families live in consistent poverty, as against a rate of 5.5% among the population as a whole. Moreover, when one talks of lone-parent families, one is referring to one in five Irish families and one in five children. I also ask the Minister to note that 86% of parents in this position are women.

I do not know whether the Minister saw the programme but on last night's edition of "Tonight with Vincent Browne", the economist Jim Power made a stupid, ignorant and offensive remark about lone parenting being a choice. While one might expect something like that, he is supposed to be well educated through our State-supported education system and to display a little more intelligence. It demonstrates there is an attitude among elements of the better-off and those who are well sheltered from the crisis who believe that people in receipt of welfare benefits, including lone parents, are making lifestyle choices, that is, they are too lazy to work and are milking the welfare system for whatever it is worth. This definitely was indicated by the comment made last night by the aforementioned economist, Jim Power. It was an absolutely disgraceful reaction. Unfortunately, such reactions and attitudes are reinforced by Ministers talking about lifestyle choices or massaging the figures to fraudulently claim there is widespread fraud within the social welfare system. In fact, the majority of the approximately 200,000 lone parents work. In 2009, approximately 90,450 people were in receipt of lone parent payments and of that number, 60% were working, most of whom were women working part-time.

The main reasons lone parents are poor include low-paid employment, the problem of affordable child care - with which the Minister is familiar - the lack of family-friendly work arrangements and the lack of after care. I note the Minister states she intends to address the latter, although she will bring in this legislation anyway, thereby forcing many lone parents into part-time work. Such work tends to be in low-paid minimum wage jobs and tend to be in those areas covered by the joint labour committee, JLC, agreements. These are the very workers whose wages and conditions are being attacked by the Government. Another problem facing lone parents is gaining access to training or further education. This means of securing a better paid job again faces the same barrier, namely, the lack of affordable child care. The cost of child care in Ireland is approximately twice the European Union average cost and consequently, Ireland does not have affordable child care.

At the time of the last budget, the Minister stated the best route out of poverty was through paid employment and she reiterated this point in her opening contribution this evening. There are two ways in which to consider this statement. The first is to state that it is true. If the aim is to secure jobs with decent pay and conditions, this implies a serious commitment by the Government to create employment and not the Mickey Mouse schemes and spin that have been evident thus far. It also implies real action to provide affordable child care, training, skilling and opportunities for further education. I believe the JobBridge initiative was even being criticised at the Labour Party conference over the weekend for its inadequacies in respect of providing people with skills and the manner in which it is being used. I note the Minister now suggests that lone parents also are be included in this scheme.

On the other hand, this statement could be a cover for cutting welfare costs by driving people into low-paid minimum wage jobs and into the arms of ruthless exploitative employers. While they still would be trapped in poverty, as a statistic to the State they would be off the live register. I believe the latter possibility to be the approach of the Government. I am greatly concerned by this approach and note that those who attended the meeting held today with representatives of the National Women's Council of Ireland, Barnardos and OPEN will have encountered a highly disgruntled and angry group of people who believed they had been completely disregarded by the Minister in respect of this cut to the child's age with regard to the receipt of lone parent payments. It constitutes a clear attack on these people and on children.

The only other point I wish to make in this regard is that I oppose the reduction of the basis on which jobseeker's benefits are calculated from six days to five days. This again will affect those whose access to jobs, full-time work and so on already has been affected and this measure should not be brought in. The Minister should reverse this measure and my group certainly intends to table an amendment to so do. I intended to focus my remarks on the one-parent family payment because this constitutes the crucial part of this Bill. I believe the Minister is making a mistake and if she really believed what she has stated in this Chamber, she would delay bringing in this cut for three or four years after which, if the adequate child care facilities were in place, she could attempt to make that decision.

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