Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste's logic is that if one drives lone parents further into poverty, they might come out at the other end. However, what the SILC statistics show is that is one is driving them further into deprivation, making it even more difficult for them to get out of poverty. There is no Scandinavian model of child care available here and the Tánaiste has not addressed that issue. It was her promise, not mine. Is she aware that figures from the tenancy protection service which was set up to deal with families at risk of homelessness indicate that the majority of cases with which it is dealing involve lone parent families? Many of these lone parents used the additional funding they received through the one-parent family payment which is now to be cut to top-up their rent supplement payments. Is the Tánaiste aware that one of the effects of the cut will be to drive lone parent families into homelessness and further into deprivation? In that context, I ask her again to reconsider the 2 July deadline and ensure no family will suffer deprivation because of the cuts.

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