Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for allowing me to raise what I regard as a grave injustice being perpetrated against the most vulnerable group in society, namely, lone parents. We live in a country where one in six of our population are living below the internationally accepted poverty line. In addition, a recent European survey indicated that a lone parent is 230% more likely than the average person to be living in poverty. A total of 40% of lone parents fall into the category of being at risk of poverty.

Following a change introduced by the Government, from next July any lone parent who has a child past the age of seven years will no longer be categorised as a lone parent. Such a person will be moved to the family income supplement or jobseeker's allowance, as the case may be. This is going to have huge financial consequences for a large number of lone parents throughout the country.

The irony is that the Minister for Social Protection has repeatedly told us that these changes were designed to incentivise lone parents back into the workplace. The supreme irony is that for a lone parent who is not working and simply staying at home and getting the lone parents allowance, in financial terms this change will make no difference whatsoever. Such people will be in the same position financially before as after or after as before. However, the change will specifically hit working lone parents.

My interpretation of the term "incentive" is that we make it worthwhile for someone to do something and give that person a reward for doing something. One example is the family income supplement scheme, under which we give people an incentive to take up a low-paid job because it widens the gap between what they could earn and what they would have received on social welfare. The Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection reduced the jobseeker's allowance for people under the age of 21 years from €200 per week. She said that they would have an incentive to go on a training programme because they would get €160 per week. This must be the first time in the history of the English language that someone is regarded as being incentivised to work when they are made less well-off as a result. It seems to fly in the face of every other facet of Government policy.

One example is that of a lone parent who is also looking after an elderly relative. This person has both child care and caring responsibilities and would lose, on average, €86 per week. This is because the recipient will only get the carer's allowance in place of what he gets at present, which is the lone-parent allowance plus the half-carer's allowance. Given the change in the means test and the drop in the income disregard, lone parents who work for less than 19 hours per week and earn the miserly sum of €150 per week will lose a further €24. This amounts to a cumulative loss of €53 per week as a result of the changes made by the Minister. Perhaps the Minister of State or myself could afford to take a loss of €53 per week but for a lone parent dependent on the lone-parent's allowance and working for a €150 per week on a part-time basis it is a substantial hit.

Those who are working more than 19 hours per week and entitled to the family income supplement will lose the lone-parent allowance. Either they will get an increase in the family income supplement or they will go on family income supplement for the first time. By definition, the family income supplement will only be 60% of what these people had been getting by way of the lone-parent allowance. On average, these people will lose approximately €70 per week.

The Minister stated on 18 April 2012 that the drop in the age limit to seven years would not be introduced until such time as we had a Scandinavian-type child care system in the country. I have the exact quote before me which I can read into the record if time permits.

Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Sorry, Deputy, your time is up

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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My question to the Minister of State is simple. Since we do not have a Scandinavian child care system in the country and the Minister said we would not have this change until we had such a system, will the Minister now agree to reverse the change?

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and affording me the opportunity to provide the Dáil with a response. Since its introduction in 1997, the one-parent family payment scheme, which provides an important income support to lone parents, has been passive in nature. This has engendered long-term social welfare dependency and associated poverty among many lone-parent families. This has given rise to significant higher rates of consistent poverty for lone parents in comparison to the population in general. The best route out of poverty and to social inclusion is through paid employment. I believe that supporting lone parents to participate in education and training once their children have reached an appropriate age will assist them into employment and financial independence.

In order to achieve these aims, reforms were introduced to the one-parent family payment scheme in budget 2012 to reduce the age of the youngest child to seven years for receipt of one-parent family payments. These reforms are aimed at providing the necessary support to lone parents to help them escape joblessness and poverty, to assist them to access the Department's range of education, training and employment programmes and to attain financial independence and social well-being for themselves and their families.

The final stage of this reform will take place on 2 July, when the age threshold will be reduced to seven years for all existing and new recipients. Exemptions are in place for recipients who have been recently bereaved or who are in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance for one of their children. The provisions can extend payments to certain one-parent families beyond the maximum age limit threshold for these customers. It is expected that approximately 30,000 customers will be affected by this reform in July and they will be fully supported by the Department in the transition to another income support payment.

It is expected that approximately 30,000 customers will be affected by this reform in July and they will be fully supported by the Department in transitioning to another income support payment. The majority of customers are expected to move to a jobseeker's allowance payment, including the jobseeker's allowance transitional arrangement. In recognition of the caring responsibilities of lone parents, the jobseeker's allowance transitional arrangement was introduced in 2013. This arrangement caters for lone parents who transition from the one-parent family payment scheme to jobseeker's allowance and who have a youngest child under 14 years of age. The arrangement exempts these customers from certain jobseeker's allowance conditions, including the requirement to be available for and genuinely seeking full-time work. The jobseeker's allowance transitional arrangement thereby allows these customers to balance their caring responsibilities and significantly reduces their requirement for child care.

As part of budget 2015, the Tánaiste announced the back-to-work family dividend. The dividend is available to customers who transition from the one-parent family payment to family income supplement as their primary payment. The dividend allows these customers to receive a payment of €29.80 per child per week in their first year of employment and half that amount in the second year of employment.

The Deputy will be aware that the Department also introduced a number of child care initiatives jointly with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. These include the after-school child care scheme and the community employment child care programme, both of which provide support for lone parents. The key policy objective of this reform is to improve the outcomes for lone parents and their families. This will be achieved by providing lone parents with improved access to the Department's Intreo services, including the opportunity to develop a personal development plan with an Intreo case officer. On foot of these reforms, lone parents will have enhanced access to education, training and employment supports, including the back-to-work family dividend, which will assist them in improving their prospects of securing employment and financial independence.

There are no plans to review or revise the ongoing implementation of the one-parent family payment reforms.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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The response from the Department states the 30,000 people who will be affected by this change next July will be "fully supported" by the Department in making the transition. They will not be fully supported. They are going to suffer an horrendous income loss, with no compensation from the Department or anyone else. In 2012 the Minister for Social Protection, while discussing an amendment to prevent this change, said:

I entirely agree that seven is too young for anyone to seriously contemplate any of these things without there being a system of safe, affordable and accessible child care in place, similar to what is found in the Scandinavian countries whose systems of social protection we aspire to. That is why I am undertaking tonight that I will only proceed with the measure to reduce the upper age limit to seven years in the event that I get a credible and bankable commitment on the delivery of such a system of child care by the time of this year's budget. If this is not forthcoming, the measure will not proceed.

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Deputy has asked numerous questions which I am not going to be able to answer in the time allowed. In that context, I suggest he submit his queries to the Department by way of parliamentary questions and I will ensure they answered in full.

On the issue of using the Scandinavian model, the provision of child care services and future plans in this regard are matters for my colleague, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. The Scandinavian child care model, while very comprehensive, is also very expensive. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs estimates the cost of universal child care provision would reach approximately €1 billion per annum. In the current fiscal environment that level of funding is not available. However, an interdepartmental group comprising the Departments of the Taoiseach, Education and Skills, Social Protection, Public Expenditure and Reform, Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Finance and led by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs is examining the issue of child care. It is intended that it will finalise its work in the spring.

The experience in my constituency which is probably similar to that in the Deputy's is that the lone-parent payment has been a poverty trap. The reforms introduced have assisted lone parents back into the employment market by providing them with access to training and education, ultimately leading to employment and financial independence.

I apologise for not answering all of the Deputy's queries. I urge him to submit parliamentary questions and I will endeavour to ensure they are answered fully.