Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Our current system, which we have had for quite a period, involves inviting Mandy to go onto social welfare for somewhere between 18 and 22 years as opposed to moving towards a system which Sinn Féin has operated in the North for a long time as part of the Government there. In the North, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, when the youngest child reaches five years of age, a person parenting alone is encouraged to take up a range of options, including education, training and work experience, with a view to helping that parent to get employment. While our social welfare system and payments are very much higher than those that Sinn Féin pays in government in the North, the critical thing for families parenting on their own is to ensure that as the children get older, the mother, in particular, or a father parenting alone, has the opportunity to get back into work, education and training.

In relation to lone parents who are already working, I note that we are in contact with employers through the Labour Market Council to improve their hours. In that regard, the Deputy can give us the details of the case she raises.

If, as the Deputy says, her hours go from 14 hours to 19 hours, depending on the particular circumstances, she will come out with somewhere between an extra €50 and €150 per week in terms of family income supplement. That is the outcome we want to see. Some 13,000 one parent families have already transitioned to the jobseeker's transitional arrangement. The Deputy said that she would go on to the jobseeker's arrangement. That is not correct. She will go on to the jobseeker's transitional payment-----

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