Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

There will be further cuts in eight months' time on 1 January for the parents of ten year olds. These children are in fourth class. The Government is saying to children, who are in sixth class today, that if their parents apply for the one parent family payment after next Thursday, 3 May which is the date in the legislation, they will not be eligible and that they are not to be at home to mind their children when they come home from primary school. I ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Fitzgerald, to take note of that. This is a disgrace.

The Minister for Social Protection created a smoke screen over the past week that she would like the Scandinavia model in place for 2014 for seven year olds. However, she did this to camouflage what is commencing next week in regard to under 12 year olds and under ten year olds.

By reducing the age from 14 to seven, over the next few years, the Government will be reducing the number of people in receipt of this payment from 92,000 to 46,000 people and it will be saving €0.5 billion of taxpayers' money on the back of the one parent family payment.

The second savage cut the Government is implementing-----

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