Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are parts of Dublin Central which have higher numbers of lone parents than anywhere else in the country. I know many of them and they are real people with real stories and they have very real fears about what is being proposed for them and their children. The majority are female but there is a significant and growing number of one-parent families where it is the male we are talking about. They have seen, since 2008, reduction after reduction, year on year, with the result that low income households continue to suffer disproportionately.

Some of us have called repeatedly for equality proofing of budgets. Last November, I moved, with the Technical Group, a Private Members' motion about this issue. We should have a human rights approach to budgeting. There was general agreement on the principle of what was being proposed and the need for adequate assessment of the impact of budgetary decisions on the most vulnerable. Of course it was different when it came to the vote, but the Government amendment at the time said "a social impact assessment of the main taxation and welfare measures will be carried out by a cross-Department body led by the Departments of Finance, Social Protection and Public Expenditure and Reform". If that was happening, what is being proposed here now, and one can call it a restructuring but it is really a cut, would not be proposed.

There have been many calls for this to be suspended so that the Department could undertake a full review of planned changes including that impact assessment. I hope that when we see the impact of this and that there are dire consequences it will be reviewed. I have seen figures from €108 to €140 as being the amount that some families will lose per week. How can families on very low incomes sustain that? We are all for enabling lone parents to move from social welfare into education and employment, but I do not see what is being proposed as facilitating that. The hardest hit will be those in part-time employment who may have to give up that work. This will increase the number of one-parent families in poverty and they will continue at the lower level in employment and education.

I have stated during Leaders Questions in this House that housing and homeless organisations have real fears that what is being proposed will push more people into homelessness. My biggest concern is the effect on children. We know there is an increase in the number of children living in consistent poverty. There is a very real fear, as I expressed on the last occasion, of more children joining the numbers of rough sleepers. The Housing First project leader saw that happening this week. He saw families with children, who would be becoming part of the numbers of rough sleepers, presenting. There is also the fear that those kinds of families might not present. They would prefer to hide under the radar for fear their children will be taken from them. The reality is that what is being proposed will exacerbate a really bad situation.

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