Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

The basis of the Bill is to provide for the introduction of the back-to-work family dividend scheme. This is supposedly to help jobseekers with families and lone parents to return to work. We cannot look at this in isolation, we must look at it in the context of the virtual assault on the living standards of lone parents who have been pauperised under this Government. They have been particularly targeted and the measures proposed do not address it. In many ways, they exacerbate it. I reiterate the call of FLAC, which suggests the Government should reverse the changes to the one-parent family payment and carry out a social impact assessment of the changes to the payment to determine the extent to which changes to the scheme have had a detrimental impact on families.

We have had a lot of jargon and sloganeering about getting people off welfare as if it was like getting them off heroin. It is as if they are addicted to the poverty lifestyle that being dependent on social welfare is in Ireland. It demonstrates a complete lack of understanding from Government representatives of the real lives of lone parents. This follows what went on in Britain, which was the demonisation of lone parents and playing to a stereotypical and unreal vision of lone parents lounging around in their pyjamas all day and who could not be bothered going to get jobs. Everyone knows the reality is that it is not a lack of willingness on the part of lone parents, who would like nothing more than to have a break from the family environment and go out to work, but the lack of opportunity, of decent and well-paying jobs, and affordable child care.

One of the reasons things are so bad is the policies implemented in other areas. This includes the JobBridge scheme, where companies like Supervalu are advertising for shop assistants under JobBridge. Hewlett-Packard, a wealthy multinational corporation, is looking for interns under the scheme. These schemes are replacing well-paid jobs that should be available. Lone parents find it very difficult to access the support when there is no child care. I hope the Government has read the study and survey by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul showing that people on welfare would like nothing better than the opportunity to get a decent job. As Deputy Mick Wallace said, those opportunities are few and far between.

The situation was summed up by a 31-year-old mother of three from the country who contacted us. She has a maintenance arrangement, made through mediation, of €5 a week but has never received it. She receives a fuel allowance of €20 and her total income for herself and her children is €267.60 per week. With the help of non-governmental organisations, NGOs, she has had the confidence to try to return to education. She wants to become a midwife and be self-supporting in that regard. She received a letter saying the one-parent family payment will be cut off from 1 April. Now, she spends one morning a week, at a cost of €10, travelling to an education centre. She says it might seem a small amount of money but to her it is the difference between having bread and milk, or not, on Wednesday. Nevertheless, she is investing this money because she wants to pursue her education and does not have any family support. In September, she wanted to study five days a week but it would cost €50 in petrol and 15 hours in child care either side of school hours. With the changes introduced by the Government, it would make it inaccessible to her. She asks how this is incentivising lone parents to return to the workplace.

Some people have characterised these measures as a deliberate act of structural violence against lone parents. I do not see that as an exaggeration. We are structuring a scenario where lone parents cannot access educational opportunities or decent jobs and are being allocated Springboard courses with little chance of advancement or meaningful employment at the end. We must step back. I reiterate the call made by FLAC to reverse the cuts and take stock of where we are in our dealings with lone parents rather than pursuing this project of social vandalism and the targeting of this vulnerable group once again.

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