Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not think I am. I am right that people on lone parent's allowance can earn a certain amount without the allowance being affected and then the allowance is reduced in stages as the income increases. My strong impression and information is that if people in receipt of a means tested jobseeker's allowance have any outside income earnings the allowance is reduced euro for euro. There are disregards if one's spouse earns but not on one's direct income. The Civil Service officials are shaking their heads. If there is a disregard for people in receipt of jobseeker's allowance I will bet my bottom dollar it is nowhere near the disregard which applies to lone parents so the point stands.

There was a big commitment in both Government parties' election manifestoes, and in the programme for Government, to combating child poverty. I wonder how one can really combat child poverty by discouraging lone parents from going out to work, reducing child benefit, taxing maternity benefit, increasing prescription charges and drug payment scheme thresholds, abolishing the cost of education allowance, abolishing the PRSI allowance for the low paid people, and putting property tax on social welfare recipients. I do not see how one can combat child poverty in this way. I agree with Karen Kiernan, the director of One Family, who stated single parents are reeling from the cuts in the budget which saw the poorest families and children becoming ever poorer as a direct result of ill thought out changes.

There is no room there for congratulations.

I welcome the general provision in section 16, which facilitates online searching of the index of births, marriages and civil partnerships. I am not sure why it excludes adoptions and stillbirths, but I am sure there is a pretty good reason for it.

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