Brendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour)

In her statement to the House last night the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, highlighted the fact that despite improvements to the one-parent family payment in recent years, a large proportion of lone parents and their children still experienced poverty. I can vouch for that statement, as every week I meet many lone parents struggling to meet basic household expenses such as the cost of food and heat. That has always been the case for lone parents who have been given just enough financial support to get by. However, they need more than this. They need structural supports and engagement in order to provide a better quality of life for themselves and their children.

In Galway last Saturday I spoke about how the social protection system, as constructed by successive Governments, was passive and allowed many people to drift into long-term unemployment. Previous Governments did not seem to care how they felt, having been cut adrift, disenfranchised and stripped of self-esteem and self-worth. The system had let them down. The system, as inherited by the Government, has also let down lone parents by failing to provide a mechanism whereby they can engage in training opportunities and re-enter the workforce. Many lone parents whom I have met, including many whose children are fully grown, regret the lack of opportunities afforded to them as they were raising their children.

The changes in the Bill to the one-parent family payment which will ensure that from 2014 new recipients of the one-parent family payment will receive it until their youngest child reaches seven years of age have caused concern. I accept that seven years is too young an age for a child to be left without adequate child care facilities if his or her parent has to return to work. That is why we need safe, affordable and accessible child care arrangements to be made before lowering the age requirement. I was heartened to hear the Minister speak about a multi-departmental approach involving the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Minister for Education and Skills, aimed at providing affordable and accessible child care services for lone parents. I fully support the adoption of this approach, as I strongly believe that if accessible and affordable child care services are not in place by 2014, the proposed change from ten years to seven should be deferred until such time as appropriate child care facilities are available. That will not be easy and it will require cross-departmental co-ordination, political will and creative thinking. Perhaps the use of rooms in primary schools as potential locations for child care facilities could be an option to be explored with the Minister for Education and Skills. There would be advantages to accommodating child care services in the same premises in which the children in question are schooled in the morning and early afternoon. Parents would not have to worry about transporting children from school to another location which would cut down on costs, worry and hassle. I accept this would require further engagement with and flexibility on the part of the Department of Education and Skills, but I hope all Cabinet Ministers will do their utmost to support the Minister, Deputy Joan Burton, as she moves the social protection system in a more progressive direction.

The Bill could be one of the most influential pieces of social welfare legislation in the history of the State if it results in better outcomes for single-parent families. That is the objective of the Minister in making changes to one-parent family supports. It is not easy to change the ethos of an entire system, one which was handed over to the Government in such a state of disrepair and neglect. The Opposition, in its quest for populist headline grabbing, is intent on muddying the waters and focusing on the aspect of cost alone. It does not see an opportunity to introduce reform in anything. It seems to believe that blindly increasing all thresholds is the answer to all the problems in the social protection system. As usual, it is wrong and misguided; it is misrepresenting the complexity of the issue for the public. What the country needs is structural change in the social protection system. People need to be helped up, not a hand-out. The best way out of poverty is through a return to paid employment.

I am encouraged by how the Minister has consistently linked her vision for the Department of Social Protection with making social welfare recipients job-ready when opportunities arise. Lone parents will not be left behind. I accept that the provision of adequate child care is critical. I call on relevant Departments and Ministers, in particular the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, to support the Minister in assuring people that there is a child care plan which will be in put in place and that the Government will be remembered for how it supported lone parents in a way they had never been supported previously and delivered the outcomes required by all, including lone parents.

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