Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

Perhaps the Minister might desist then.

What should be withdrawn are these measures which will attack mostly women, lone parents, who form one of the most vulnerable and impoverished sectors in our society as the Minister acknowledges. Given that there are no complementary supports in terms of child care or education to compensate for the loss of these payments, how can the Minister paint removing these supports as anything other than a nasty attack?

On the issue of name-calling and the rest of it, I cannot see how this is motivated by anything other than a belief in some of the stereotying and stigmatisation of lone parents that has justified the attacks on them in the past. It is appalling that the Minister would be involved in justifying any of that because I do not believe she herself believes any of those stereotypes and yet this legislation can only be motivated by that because that is the effect it will have. It will attack those very sectors of society which two years ago the Minister and her party colleagues were championing and defending against precisely this sort of legislation.

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