Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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9. To ask the Minister for Social Protection in view of recent reports indicating a significant rise in child poverty and deprivation, particularly in the instance of lone parents, if she will abandon all plans to make changes to the one-parent family payment scheduled for July 2015. [9388/15]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I listened to some of the Tánaiste's responses in terms of the impact of her budgetary measures on lone parents in recent years, but is it not the case that facts do not lie and that the plight of lone parents and their children has worsened in the past two years as a result of those measures? The number at work has fallen and the number suffering deprivation has increased. The number of children, many of whom I suspect are the children of lone parents, suffering deprivation and poverty has increased. Is this not the straightforward result of what the Tánaiste has done? Should she not reconsider what she is planning to do in July lest she make matters worse for many lone parents?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Almost 70,000 lone parents are supported by the one-parent family payment at an estimated cost of approximately €607 million in 2015. Despite considerable levels of investment, however, lone parents are still significantly more at risk of consistent poverty compared with the population as a whole. The Survey on Income and Living Conditions in 2012 found that children in low work intensity households accounted for 82% of all children in consistent poverty. Figures from EUROSTAT for 2012 found that increasing work intensity in a such a household to even part-time work - 20% to 45% work intensity - would reduce the rate of children at risk of poverty by 65%. For this reason, it is critical that the focus be changed to ensure that lone parents are provided by the State with real prospects for a better future that is not welfare dependent.

Lone parents are now being provided, when their youngest children turn seven years old, with intensive support from my Department. They will be supported to produce personal development plans through one-to-one meetings with departmental case officers. They will have subsequent access to education, training and employment supports, including JobsPlus and the new back-to-work family dividend, under which €30 will be retained per week in addition to social welfare payments in respect of each child during the parent's first year back at work and 50% of that in the second year.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Tánaiste has already been forced to backtrack on the cut to half-rate carer's allowance affecting the 800 lone parents who are carers because Single Parents Acting for the Rights of Kids, SPARK, exposed what was about to happen. I suggest she do the same in respect of the loss of income that lone parents who work part time will suffer as a result of the abandonment of the one-parent family payment in July.

The Tánaiste talks motherhood and apple pie about people wanting to return to work. Two years ago, 60% of lone parents were in work. That number has decreased as a result of what the Government has done. In light of what is planned for July, lone parents who work 20 hours per week will lose 25% of their incomes. How does this incentivise people to return to work? It will have the opposite effect and drive them out of work and further into poverty. Will the Tánaiste back away from her plans in this area? She has realised that she had already made one mistake. Will she acknowledge that she has made another, abandon the change planned for July and go back to the drawing board?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Deputy Boyd Barrett's proposal is to tell people who are lone parents, be it because their relationships ended or they had children on their own, that they should remain on social welfare for 18 years during some of the best years of their lives or even longer if they have more than one child. What tends to happen in that scenario is that someone stops being a long parent in his or her late 40s or early 50s. We just discussed meeting lone parents in community employment schemes and so on in Coolock. It can be difficult for people to return to education and training in order to get well-paid jobs. As I told the Deputy, all of the statistics across Europe, not just in Ireland, show that if a family relies only on social welfare and there is little work in the household, be it a one-parent or two-parent household, even a 20% to 45% participation rate in work reduces the risk of poverty in the household by more than 60%.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Can we get rid of the red herrings? More than most, lone parents know that it is better to be in work if they can find any because it makes them better off. The proof of the pudding is that before the Tánaiste started her cuts in 2012, most lone parents were working. She is now putting pressure on them to leave work because they will lose up to 20% of their incomes. I am not saying this, SPARK and lone parents are saying it. They have already exposed one mistake made by the Tánaiste in respect of carers, who are also workers. She recognised that what she was doing was unfair. Will she please recognise that what she is proposing to do in this context will lead to a loss of income for working lone parents and is likely to drive them out of work and into poverty? Will the Tánaiste reconsider?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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If the Deputy were to examine the situation he would find that if lone parents were in a position to increase their working hours to 19 per week, they would get a significant increase in support via family income supplement, FIS.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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And if they work 20 hours or more, they will lose.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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This year, we will spend at least €280 million of taxpayers' money on FIS to support families on low incomes in returning to work for at least 19 hours per week. I am unsure if the Deputy was listening, but the back-to-work family dividend-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I was.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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If a social welfare recipient has children, he or she is paid just under €30 a week per child. If he or she moves back into part-time or full-time work, he or she will receive a payment of €30 a week per child from the Department. The Deputy can scoff, but that is strong support.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Department accepted the figures.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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We are well over time.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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We know from people who have transitioned how well they have done.