Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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6. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she has completed an impact analysis of her intended changes on those in receipt of one-parent family payments, in particular, the 63% of recipients who are already living in poverty; and if she will report on these financial impacts. [9209/15]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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Last weekend, the Tánaiste stated that Labour Party women would not be bullied. I strongly agree with the sentiment that they should not be bullied and they will not be bullied. Are the changes to the one-parent family payment an example of a Labour Party Minister bullying the 70,000 people, almost all of whom are women, who are in receipt of the payment? The implementation rules in respect of the jobseeker's allowance transitional arrangement, JST, clearly include an element of compulsion.

One of the Tánaiste's predecessors who served both as Tánaiste and Minister for Social Welfare, the late, great Brendan Corish, who is revered by the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys, me and many others, was responsible for introducing the first supports for lone parents. Is it not tragic that the leader of the Labour Party is dismantling these same supports?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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As Deputy Broughan is aware, the Labour Party is the party of work. While we want to have a strong social welfare system, we also want people of working age to be able to go to work, be financially independent and enjoy satisfying employment, a career and a life of financial independence. That is the Labour Party's position.

Before I introduced the reforms, the one-parent family payment was a well-meaning and passive scheme with limited engagement by the State with recipients. Unfortunately for many lone parents, most of whom are women, this has meant long-term social welfare dependency, associated poverty and social exclusion for them and their families.

The scheme was introduced by Frank Cluskey, albeit with Brendan Corish's strong support. As Deputy Broughan will be aware, people could receive the payment for 18 years without once being asked how they were, what they were doing or whether anything could be done to help them. The critical issue is that most people want to get out to work when family life permits.

Social transfers have provided an extremely important buffer in reducing poverty for all welfare recipients, including lone parents. It is estimated that expenditure on the scheme, which has almost 70,000 recipients, will be €607 million in 2015. Lone parents remain at particular risk of poverty, which is not new as they have traditionally experienced higher rates of poverty than other groups.

By contrast, the poverty rates for people in work are much lower. That is why I believe the reforms we have been introducing are needed. I want to support lone parents to develop their skills and, ultimately, secure well paid employment, whether full time or part time.

I have also made significant changes to the arrangements in place for affected customers as they transition. They include the introduction of the jobseeker’s allowance transitional arrangement which gives lone parents with young children the flexibility they need to work part time or engage in full-time education and provides access to subsidised child care through the after school child care scheme, the community employment child care programme and the extension this week of the one-parent family payment to all lone parents providing full-time care, until their youngest child reaches 16 years of age. Some 11,000 people have made the transition in the past three years and we have seen people see a significant improvement in their income through part-time work, plus family income supplement. Now we are adding the back to work family dividend of €30 per week per child.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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As the Minister's colleague, Deputy Brendan Ryan, said recently in a debate on this issue, the rules applying to the jobseeker's transition payment are a disincentive to work because if a person works for more than 20 hours, the disregard is only €60. Is that not a disincentive? As the Minister knows, I have been involved for decades in trying to assist people and the heads of one-parent families to get back into the workforce. Does the Minister agree that the system, as devised, is a disincentive and coercive because the rules state clearly there will be a penalty rate of the jobseeker's transition payment and that it can be lost completely if people are not prepared to go through the Minister's activation programme? She said in 2012 that she would bring forward a high quality child care system in order that there would be equality between two-parent and one-parent families. As the organisation SPARK, Single Parents Acting for the Rights of Kids, which represents single parent families has stated, the Minister compares her proposed child care system to the Swedish child care system, but the only Swedish child care system we have in place is the crèche in IKEA in Ballymun. That is all we have achieved. I put it to the Minister that she is shoring up fundamental discrimination between two-parent and one-parent families. Is that not the case?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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With the Deputy Broughan and other Deputies, I have had the privilege of meeting a significant number of community organisations in Dublin North-East at different times during the years and know that the Deputy is heavily involved in community employment and other initiatives to help people to get back to work. I know he is committed to this work. The changes being made are significant. When the lone parent schemes were first introduced, it was anticipated that people would be in receipt of the lone parent allowance for 18 to 22 years. I have looked at what happens in other countries and in almost all of them efforts are made to help people to get back to work when a child is about five years of age. This happens in the North, elsewhere in the United Kingdom and most of Scandinavia. In some countries it happens when the child is just one year old. In our case I have considered the 18 year period and suggested an intervention when the child reaches seven years of age when he or she would be in first class. This could happen earlier if a parent wanted to become involved. I want to encourage people to get back to education and training in order that they can attain a qualification, whether it be a FETAC qualification, a college degree or something else, that will help them to find part-time or full-time work, depending on their family circumstances and caring commitments. That is what it is all about. People are very anxious to do this.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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I ask Deputies and the Minister to watch the clock. We are dealing with ordinary questions and Deputies want their questions to be reached.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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The Minister has put the cart before the horse. I presume that in the spring statement or the budget in October she will announce further developments in child care provision. Surely she is dealing with this issue the wrong way around and should not have brought forward the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill yesterday. The back to work dividend is time limited, as it will only last during the so-called recovery period. Does the Minister agree that she is putting these 200,000 struggling one-parent families under unbearable and unnecessary stress and that after the general election the next Government will have to do something fundamental to restore what is being removed?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The 11,000 people who have in the past three years made the transition have been able to avail of dedicated services from the Department of Social Protection - it is now a national employment service - that help people to access education, training, work experience and employment, including community employment. Last year we increased the number of community employment places by 2,000. We opened new schemes such as Tús to give people one year of experience in working in their communities. The Deputy saw the figures yesterday and the number on the live register is down to 10.1%. While this is still too high, it is a huge improvement on the almost 15% figure when we entered government. The back to work family dividend will mean €30 per week per child in continuing welfare payment support for one year and €15 per week in the second as people move into work to help them with the transition. This is in addition to family income supplement which, as the Deputy knows, is an enormous help to those working part time or on low pay.