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

This Government and in particular the Labour Party have earned the unenviable reputation of being anti-woman and anti-child and do not seem to care who knows it. It appears to have made a calculated decision that lone parents, like carers and other vulnerable sections of society are inconsequential. Perhaps the Tánaiste figures they are a section of voters whose support she does not really need, or so she thinks. If she made her decisions based on what is right, fair and socially responsible, she would not introduce another cut to the one-parent family payment. The Tánaiste and I know, and the families concerned certainly know, that the right, fair and responsible thing to do is not to introduce this latest anti-family measure.

Politically, it seems the Tánaiste feels she has no reason to fear this section of the electorate. Cynically, she has decided she does not need their votes to get re-elected, which makes it easier to introduce this cut on top of a raft of draconian cuts that are anti-woman and anti-child. Since taking office, this Government has made eight separate cuts to payments to lone-parent families. In its latest measure of the 30,000 lone parents affected, approximately 20,000 are to be transferred onto the new transitional job seeker's allowance. Thousands of these struggling parents will see their income fall. More than 10,000 will have weekly payments cut by as much as €87 per week. I have asked the Tánaiste and some of her Cabinet colleagues to set out for these families, who are already struggling on very low incomes where they propose they find that additional €87, how they propose these families struggle on regardless, having lost €87 per week. That is a lot of money by any standards but it is utterly devastating for lone-parent families who are already under significant pressure, many of whom already live in poverty. Yet this Government is hell-bent on forcing more of these families into poverty. Most lone parents are women, 86% at the last census. Many are in low-paid and insecure jobs. Some 56% of lone-parent families are materially deprived. That is a shocking and disgraceful statistic. A total of 28% live at risk of poverty, twice the rate for two-parent families. CSO figures show that 63% of lone-parent families live without basic necessities, yet the Tánaiste feels that it is fair, responsible and just to punish them again and to make a brutal cut of €87 per week to the weekly income of 10,000 of these families

Ireland has one of the highest child care costs in the OECD. The average cost of child care per week in this State is €167 and it is higher in Dublin. Child care can cost as much as 52% of the take home pay of a lone parent. The Tánaiste knows all of these facts and figures yet the Government has said that these changes, which will cause additional hardship for already struggling lone parents, would only take place when a system of safe, affordable and accessible child care was put in place, similar to that found in Scandinavian countries. Does the Tánaiste remember saying that?

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