Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

-----the relevant age for 2012 is under 12; for 2013 it is under 10; and for 2014 it is under seven.

The calculations for 2012 are that out of 92,000 lone parents the new system will affect 170 people. I want to be very clear to people who are in the lone parents system that this will take several years to apply. By rather careless references one might imply that everybody is affected by this but they are not. A tiny proportion of the 92,000 people claiming the one parent family payment will be affected. Deputy Fleming commented on the number of parents affected. It is incorrect to state half of one parent family payment claimants would be affected by this measure. This would imply that all claimants would continue to claim until the youngest child is 18 years of age. I want to stress the following point which perhaps will put to rest the concerns of Deputy Boyd Barrett. Many people claim the one parent family payment for a short period and return to work. The overall figure of 92,000 claimants encompasses all claimants with short-term and long-term situations.

I have been involved in this for a very long time. When I was previously in the Department I designed much of the structure that developed into our current system. What is critical for lone parents is to provide access to education, training and work. Believe it or not, when I was involved in this in the early 1990s a young woman who became pregnant without her partner's ongoing support often had to give up secondary school. She could not even complete school. People may have seen the young woman who went missing the other day. At 16 years of age she had two children. Personally I have always been involved in this area and I have known many people affected by this in various ways. This is why I acknowledge and care very deeply about this issue. We must consider where as a country we can make the next gain and development. Deputy Catherine Murphy will remember those days when young women in school who had a child without the support of a partner often had to leave and could not return. Younger people now would not even know this situation existed.

We must ask how we can move forward. Deputies can be as critical as they like but people from various political backgrounds have various insights. I am so pleased the Government has assigned a full Ministry for children and I am sure Deputies see this as progressive. We have Ministries for Education and Skills, for Children and for Social Protection. We are capable of doing a great deal in this country.

See this speech in context