Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this debate on an important topic. I have said on numerous occasions in the House that social welfare is a safety net that many, if not the majority of, people will benefit from and utilise at some stage in their lives. Deputy Arthur Spring touched on the issue of politicians. I do not know any politician who wants to see people in poverty or who does not want to see people lifted out of poverty. Every politician would support and aspire to that. There are different philosophies regarding how one might achieve that. One could argue that it was not achieved in times of plenty. In more difficult and constrained economic times, it is obviously more difficult. Some people would espouse the belief that social welfare should increase to keep pace with inflation, while others would state we should encourage people to enter the workplace and support their progression there via family income supplement or the new back-to-work family dividend that was created by the Government in the previous budget. That is what this is about. It is not about saving money. It is about incentivising and lifting people out of poverty.

At the height of the boom in 2004 when money was not an issue, if one believes a former Minister for Finance who appeared before the banking inquiry, lone parents were four and a half times more likely to be in poverty. At that time, participation in the workforce was way below the OECD average so there was something wrong. Other countries have moved in terms of how they deal with lone parents. We all accept that lone parents face specific challenges, child care in particular, but this is about trying to lift them of the situation they are in by incentivising and encouraging.

I am a member of the Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs, which is currently dealing with the country-specific recommendations as put forward by the European Commission. Every country in Europe has signed up to Europe 2020 targets under the European Semester process. Those country-specific recommendations in 2014 and 2015 tie into this area. Recommendation No. 3 of this year involves taking steps to increase the work intensity of households and addressing the poverty risk of children by tapering the withdrawal of benefits and supplementary payments upon return to employment and through better access to affordable, full-time child care. That is what the Department has been moving towards and that is what the European Commission has been advising countries to do via the European Semester process. The Commission is advising and encouraging this move. Other countries like the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and New Zealand have progressed to a different model in recent years and we have not done so.

I seek clarification in respect of SUSI. It is stated that a student in receipt of one-parent family payment who comes off it and who can transfer to the back-to-education allowance will continue to maintain their SUSI maintenance grant. In response to one query, I was informed it had identified that the person in question will be receiving the back-to-education allowance. It said that from the information provided, it would appear they were not eligible for a maintenance grant but that they may still be entitled to a fee grant or a postgraduate fee contribution should one of those apply to their chosen course and subject to meeting all the eligibility criteria. I ask for clarification regarding whether they are eligible in all cases.

The impact of these changes must be monitored to ensure no one is left worse off and there is no greater hardship because we have encouraged more people to avail of family income supplement and the back-to-work family dividend. That is the basis of it. As others have stated, I believe the Minister is genuine in her belief that this is the right thing to do and that it will encourage and lift people out of poverty, but I ask that the process and changes be monitored to ensure that if there are specific hardship cases for whatever reason, they can be alleviated through whatever means are possible.

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