John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Those aged 18 to 24 years in receipt of a jobseeker's payment will receive an increase of €2.70. Those aged 25 years will receive an increase of €3.80.

Instead of struggling to live on €100 per week, those aged between 18 and 24 years will now struggle on €102.70 simply because of their age. These increases were hardly surprising coming from the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Leo Varadkar, given that he struggles to comprehend how any young person could be on a jobseeker's payment in the first place. He made his feelings towards young people crystal clear; the full rate of jobseeker's benefit is far too generous for them. The Minister has also expressed confusion about young people with poor English and qualifications coming to Ireland from foreign shores and taking up employment in a matter of weeks, while young Irish people seem unable to do likewise. Apparently, to use his words, "there are lots of jobs."

Not content with running thousands of young people out of the country when it purposely cut jobseeker's payments in the first place, the Fianna Fáil Party has played its part in ensuring the discrimination against young people it started in 2009 will continue. While it engages in the pretence of being outraged by the level of the increase and has vowed to reverse it, the crocodile tears Fianna Fáil has shed about a tiny increase in payments for young jobseekers come a little late in the day. It was part of negotiating the budget and, ultimately, can take responsibility for the measures for young jobseekers. In contrast to the numerous U-turns it has made since the general election, its message for young people has remained consistent - they should live on €100 a week and be grateful or leave the country. I assume this is one of the common policy objectives it shares with Fine Gael.

Sinn Féin welcomes the increase in the back to education allowance for jobseekers aged under 26 years to a new full rate of €193. However, given that recipients of the allowance do not qualify for the maintenance component of the student grant, the current rate will not sustain a young person through a three or four-year course. For many young people, returning to college also means having to move to access a college course and incurring additional costs which the back to education allowance will simply not cover.

While it was not anticipated that the Government would make life more difficult for lone parents, the common policy objectives it shares with Fianna Fáil have made this possible. The single biggest issue for lone parents, the reduction to seven years in the cut-off age for the one-parent family payment, is not addressed in the Bill. While it is argued that the Government reforms were implemented as an incentive to encourage lone parents into employment, family income supplement, the in-work support for lone parents, has not been increased. As a result, many parents on family income supplement would be better off if they transferred to the jobseeker's schemes.

It has been well documented that the lone parent reforms have had the perverse effect of encouraging welfare dependency and reducing household income. A recent report undertaken by the UNESCO child and family research centre at NUI Galway echoes this view. It concludes that the policy has left lone parents in paid employment financially worse off.

The Government seems to ignore the blatant fact that the capacity of a lone parent to work and care is not equal to that of a two-parent family. Lone parents are unable to participate in full-time employment when they are a child's sole carer because they are locked out of accessing child care owing to a lack of availability and the substantial costs involved. The Government's promise to introduce a Scandinavian child care model on the back of the lone parent reforms is nothing but a distant memory. Difficulties with the cost and availability of child care have been repeatedly acknowledged as an issue of concern for those parenting alone who wish to return to paid employment. Analysis by the OECD indicates that full-time day care for two preschool children accounts for 40% of the family income of an Irish lone parent on an average income compared with an OECD average of 13%. A report by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission recommended that the State reverse the reforms to the one-parent family payment until such time as an adequate and affordable child care system was in place. Perhaps ignoring this recommendation is also part of the shared policy objectives of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

According to the Government, lone parents also have the option of returning to education or engaging in training, neither of which can be accessed without proper child care. The Government needs to get its head around the fact that, in the absence of affordable child care, returning lone parents to work is not a realistic prospect.

An end to the farce known as JobBridge has been announced on numerous occasions, including as far back as 1 May 2016. I welcome the reduction in funding for the scheme in budget 2017 as a clear signal that it will be abolished. However, I am concerned that the Minister for Social Protection has been unable to provide details of a new scheme now that JobBridge has been closed to new applicants. The issues that gave rise to the serious concerns highlighted in the Department's audit of JobBridge cannot be allowed to continue in the replacement scheme. In that respect, JobBridge 2.0 will not cut it and a root and branch reform will be required. As I have outlined previously, Sinn Féin has proposed a credible alternative to JobBridge. I urge the Minister to examine our alternative proposals as a means of getting young people into the workforce.

The annual €500 cost of education allowance introduced for parents and lone parents in receipt of the back to education allowance is not new as an earlier payment was abolished in 2013. Without access to affordable child care and the maintenance element of the student grant, lone parents will find that returning to education is not a sustainable option.

Child maintenance is another major issue that is impacting on lone parents. The Department places an onus on lone parents to seek maintenance from former partners. On the one hand, it issues letters to the parent who is liable to pay maintenance in which it states maintenance payments are no longer obligatory once a child reaches the age of seven years, while, on the other, it tells lone parents they will face financial sanctions if they do not seek maintenance. This approach places lone parents in an impossible and sometimes dangerous position and must end. Lone parents do not feature in the considerations of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. That the Minister has not even bothered to respond to the UNESCO child and family centre's report reinforces this view.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael make commitments before elections, only to dump them when elected. In their election manifestos they pledged to increase the living alone allowance, yet no such increase was provided for in budget 2017.

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