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

One part of the Government strategy to deal with unemployment is to drive all of the young people out of the country. From this section, I wonder whether the other part of the strategy is to stop women having children. That is what it looks like and that is what the effect will be. In a disgraceful way, the Government is disincentivising women from having children. It is appalling that the Labour Party would be complicit with this sort of attack on expectant mothers, mothers who have just had children and families that are adopting.

As the first year or so is critical, this is not just an attack on mothers, but on children when they are most vulnerable and most need support and nurturing. It does not get much lower than - we have been trying to total up the numbers - taking €936 from mothers who have just had or are expecting kids. This is a large chunk of money. On top of the child benefit cuts imposed last year and the taxing of maternity benefit, many will not be able to have children.

As with all of these cuts, the least well-off will be hit hardest. Having children will become an option for the rich, but not a viable option for the less well-off. Shame on the Minister. She should withdraw this section. It is a disgrace.

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