Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion. I compliment Sinn Féin on tabling it, although I disagree profoundly with its analysis. It is very strong on outrage and very weak on ideas. I listened to many of the contributions last night. I would like to see more time spent addressing how we go about dealing with a system that is not functioning and effectively condemning lone parents to pretty much a lifetime of dependency on welfare and a lifetime of poverty. These are very harsh statistics. Even at the height of the Celtic tiger the situation was even worse than it is at present in terms of the percentage of lone parents who are vulnerable and prone to poverty.

All the figures clearly indicate that we should reform the system; we must reform the system. The Government made a commitment to reform the system of one-parent family payments. I would love to have a debate here with a clear analysis of what is wrong with the existing system and clear proposals on how to move forward in a coherent and meaningful fashion. There is no intention in any part of what is being done here to reduce the amount of money available to lone parents.

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