Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We have increased the spending on FIS, which goes to all families. We must be careful not to discriminate against families in a relationship, either a marriage or a partnership. We want all children and families treated in the same way with the same possibility for prosperity and financial independence. As I said to Deputy O'Dea, in the era to which Deputy Boyd Barrett refers, lone parents were four and a half times more at risk of being in poverty. Since the changes and the encouragement of lone parents into work, on a seven-year transitional basis, which people such as the Deputy conveniently ignore, the risk of those lone parents being in consistent poverty has almost halved to two and a half times. This is reality and the Deputy forgets that the first action I took, in the first Social Welfare Bill I brought before the House, was to restore the minimum wage, which Fianna Fáil and the Green Party had reduced by €1 per hour, to €8.65 per hour. I do not understand the Deputy's calculations. He should be fair.

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