Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I too and the other Deputies of the Anti-Austerity Alliance will not be supporting this Bill because of several measures. As the previous speaker said, this is an attack on the requirement for getting full-time care by taking it out of the hands of a GP and giving it to the opinions of a deciding officer and medical staff. There is a system like this in Britain operated by Atos Healthcare which is routinely used to refuse people full-time care. To me, that is what is going on here and I believe the Bill should be opposed for that reason.

I do not believe people should be fooled by a back-to-work family dividend of €29 per week as some kind of gesture towards the furore and outrage we have seen over the Government's cuts to lone-parent supports. The back-to-work family dividend facilitates the Government in its philosophy, according to which being a lone parent is a lifestyle choice, such people are lazy and they need to be activated back to work. That is absolutely outrageous given that over 50% of lone parents are in the workforce in any case. What the Government is doing will make it more difficult for them.

The back-to-work family dividend in the Bill is one of the Labour Party's key measures in the legislation. It is supposed to make going back to work pay for families. However, in effect, it will not do that. The amount of money being given is €29.80 per week per child. Does the Minister of State know of any child who can be minded for €29.80 per week? It is absolutely ridiculous. In a report carried out recently, we learned that the average cost of child care nationally was €659 per month. We know that in Dublin and other cities it is much higher, depending on the age of the child. The dividend will cover €119.20. How is anyone meant to make up the shortfall?

It is called the back-to-work dividend but the question is: back to what work? The only jobs available are low-paid or seasonal, as we are finding out and as we will find out with the case of the Dunnes Stores workers tomorrow, many of whom are women workers and many of whom may be lone parents or parents trying to keep their families afloat. The work is contractual, seasonal and is almost moving to zero-hours contracts. These are the types of jobs the Government is promoting. Most of these jobs are low-paid and precarious. Why should the Government subsidise employers who are not paying people enough to enable them to afford child care? This is another subsidy by the taxpayer for these employers.

This is a sop that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton, is bringing in because she has been under relentless criticism from every agency that deals with children, including Barnardos and the One Parent Exchange and Network. All the various bodies have reacted with outrage. Let us be honest. This is an attack on women yet again because 90% of one-parent families are headed by women. It is a continuation of the attack on the most vulnerable, who are not in a position to organise in the same way as, for example, a trade union or public sector workers. They do not have the same collective organisations. Women especially have been hit by austerity and this is another social welfare attack on them, having already faced major cuts in child benefit.

I appeal to Opposition Members to oppose this Bill because it facilitates all the cuts the Government has brought in, especially to lone parents. We should not facilitate the Government in the argument that people need to be incentivised to go back to work. People need proper child care. Most lone parents work. This shows they would like to work and want to be part of the workforce, but it is being made especially difficult for women. We have already heard from speaker after speaker about the lies of the Tánaiste, Deputy Burton, who promised this would not be brought in until we had the Scandinavian model of child care. We have no such thing.

I agree it is a sneaky attack on the Department qualification for full-time care. This is something that often happens in this type of legislation. Something that can seem rather nuanced can turn out to be very serious for many people. The Anti-Austerity Alliance will oppose the Bill. Moreover, we urge people to organise and put serious pressure on the Minister of State and the Labour Party in particular, because this represents another betrayal of women, low-paid workers and people on social welfare. We should apply pressure to get those in government to repeal all the attacks they have made.

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