Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Yes. If in due course lone parents cannot claim for children over seven years of age, which is half the 14 years in respect of which current recipients get the payment, the net effect will be that in future there will be fewer people in receipt of the payment. The Minister will probably respond saying that some parents will have two or three children and will remain eligible for the payment for some time. I do not understand why the Minister does not get it that there will be a reduced number of people claiming this payment when the age up to which lone parents are entitled to it is reduced to seven years. She might argue about the percentages but in a few years time this scheme will only cover half the number of children currently covered, which ultimately will mean the scheme will only cost half of what it is costing now, resulting in a €500 million saving.

The Minister stated in response to a question today in regard to the disability allowance that the percentage of people being refused the disability allowance has increased enormously from 52% a year and a half ago to 58% last year and more than 60% in the first quarter of this year. This is how the Minister is making her social welfare cuts. She is cutting the people on disability out of the system. She is refusing them access. She is actually doing the same with people on domiciliary care allowance. Now she will do the same with the one-parent family payment.

The Minister said she is not doing this for financial reasons. That might not be her upfront reason. There is a major downstream financial benefit from what she is doing. She said a while ago that this measure allows "lone parents to be financially independent". She believes she can make long-term social welfare recipients financially independent by eliminating their payments. She was not present in the Chamber when I made the point that using the logic of her approach, every long-term recipient of jobseeker's allowance could be made financially independent if their payments were abolished. She seems to think that if a person's payment is abolished, he or she will become financially independent. Most people are financially independent. Approximately 85% of the adults in this country are financially independent. A certain percentage of the people will always have to fall back on the State. It is the job of those of us who receive income to pay our taxes and facilitate the percentage of people who depend on us. I do not follow the logic that their dependence can be eliminated by eliminating their payments.

The main point I want to come back to is that the Minister almost got away with it during the last week, when she added a big distraction to the debate about the seven year olds who will be affected in 2014. The issue is that she is guillotining the emergency legislation that is being debated by this House today and tomorrow. The legislation will come into effect next Thursday. I want the Minister to explain the situation. Somebody out there might make a claim for one-parent family payment today because the family has spilt up, the parents have split up or one of the parents has died. The surviving parent can make a claim for one-parent family payment today if his or her youngest child is 12 or 13 years of age. The emergency legislation being introduced by the Minister will come into effect next Thursday, 3 May 2012. Some people will be eliminated after that date. If a husband, a wife or a partner dies next Thursday or Friday or thereafter, the surviving parent who goes in to claim one-parent family payment because his or her youngest child is 12 or 13 years of age will not get it. Such a person would get it today or next Monday or Tuesday, but he or she will not get it after next Thursday.

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