Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Today is the last day that lone parents whose youngest child is seven will receive the one-parent family payment. Next week 30,000 lone parents will transfer onto the new transitional jobseeker's allowance and more than 10,000 of these parents will have their weekly payments cut, some by as much as €87. It is a great pity that the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Welfare, Deputy Joan Burton, is not here in the Dáil this morning. She had a lot to say about social welfare fraud yesterday. She should know that if anyone is guilty of giving two fingers to their neighbours, it is, in fact, the Tánaiste and, indeed, the Minister, Deputy White, as they introduce the eighth successive cut to lone parent families. The overwhelming majority of these parents are women. Many are in low-paid, insecure jobs. Many are living in or at risk of poverty. All are struggling to raise their children in the most difficult of circumstances.

In 2012, the Tánaiste promised that this cut was dependent on "there being a system of safe, affordable and accessible child care in place, similar to what is found in the Scandinavian countries". Deputy White may recall her making that commitment. The Tánaiste stated that without affordable and accessible child care, "the measure will not proceed", and she was quite definitive in that regard. The average cost of child care per week is €167. In Dublin, it is even higher than that. In many communities child care is simply not available. When Fianna Fáil first cut child benefit, Labour rightly decried the cut as anti-woman and stated it highlighted the lack of influence that women held in Cabinet, and yet here Labour is in government introducing a measure that is anti-woman and, indeed, anti-child. Labour is doing exactly what it condemned Fianna Fáil for doing when Labour was in opposition - little wonder that some of Labour's backbenchers are up in arms. My question is quite simple. Will the Minister, Deputy White, and the Tánaiste keep the promise made in 2012 when introducing this cut and in the absence of accessible and affordable child care, will they, as Government, now reverse the decision to push thousands of one-parent families into poverty?

See this speech in context