Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I am not repeating it because I do not believe it should be repeated. He can read the Official Report to see what I mean. I have never heard it before. It may be a south Dublin DART expression but it is not an expression I have heard used on the north side.

In 2011, people with children under the age of 18 were eligible for lone parent payments. This will continue to apply in 2012 and 2013 when the age limit will move to 16 in 2014 and seven in 2015 and 2016 for those who have been parenting alone. That is for the age of the youngest child of a lone parent and because obviously a lone parent might have a number of children.

For people who became lone parent customers between April 2011 and May 2012, the child age limit of 14 applies for 2011 and 2012. It then moves to 12 in 2013; ten in 2014; and seven in 2015 and 2016. For people who become lone parent customers after 3 May 2012, the child age limit is 12 in 2012; ten in 2013; and seven in 2014. I appreciate that many Deputies may not have had time to read the regulations, but that is what they are.

In last year's legislation I made special provision for lone parents who are in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance or are recently bereaved. For people on domiciliary care allowance, the one-parent family payment remains in place while the domiciliary care allowance is payable for the child currently up to the age of 16, at which point the child currently can claim for disability allowance. I would prefer if the disability payment went to the parent until the child reaches majority at 18. For those who are recently bereaved the one-parent family payment will be payable for two years from the date of death of the spouse, partner or cohabitant, or until the youngest child reaches the age of 18. These are arrangements put in place last year. I have been talking about this since I became Minister because I believe - I welcome that a number of Deputies supported the idea - we should move towards helping lone parents become financially independent on a phased basis over a period of time. I appreciate that not everybody might have read the detail.

To encourage participation in education and employment, existing one-parent family payment recipients, who leave the one-parent family scheme during the phasing out period up to January 2015 in order to participate in the back to education allowance scheme or whose earnings exceed the qualifying earnings limit for the scheme, are allowed to apply for the one-parent family payment based on the age conditions within the saver period.

This is not a revenue-saving measure but a structural change to assist people to become financially independent rather than remain passively dependent on social welfare over a long period of time. Tomorrow I will launch another study completed by the ESRI and having got a copy about two weeks ago, I have had the opportunity to read it in great detail. Eminent researchers in Ireland - the kinds of people the Deputy was quoting earlier - state that the outcomes do not reflect the honest hopes and expectations that lone parents have for themselves or their children. It is incumbent on us to support that.

The average numbers of weekly recipients affected are estimated as follows: 170 people in 2012; 765 people in 2013; 2,210 people in 2014; 4,510 people in 2015; and 11,000 people in a full year.

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