Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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7. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider reversing the planned cuts to eligibility for the one-parent family payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17324/15]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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The results are now available regarding the changes in eligibility for the one-parent family payment which the Minister implemented.

Rather than supposedly supporting a return to work, the payment represents one of the most regressive swingeing anti-woman policies implemented by this Government. Would the Tánaiste agree, therefore, that instead of continuing with the transference of another 40,000 parents - overwhelmingly women - from this payment in July of this year, the cut should be reversed?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Social transfers have provided a hugely important buffer in reducing poverty. Expenditure on this scheme is estimated at €607 million in 2015 with almost 70,000 recipients. The problem is that despite a major investment in the past in respect of lone parents and their children, lone parents remain particularly at risk of poverty.

The first phase of the one-parent family payment scheme age change reforms will take place this July, when the maximum age limit of the youngest child at which a one-parent family payment recipient's payment ceases will be seven years of age. Approximately 29,400 lone parents will transition from the scheme at that date. Then, if the child is between the age of seven and 14 years, lone parents will transfer to a jobseeker's transitional payment. They will get exactly the same amount of money, but all our services in education, training, work experience and community participation will become available if the lone parents want to take them up. We will be talking to them to encourage them, where appropriate, to take it up.

That is why lone parents are being provided, when their youngest child is seven years of age, with intensive support from the Department. They will be supported to produce a personal development plan through one-to-one meetings with case officers. They will have enhanced access to education, training and employment supports. For example, if they take up employment, they will have the back-to-work family dividend and their employer will have the option of JobsPlus. The back-to-work family dividend will give them an additional €30 per week in addition to the family income supplement - a significant payment - if they get employment in excess of 19.5 hours.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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I note the Tánaiste referred to intensive support for lone parents. In 2012 with a similar line she said that this cut would not go ahead unless she got a credible and bankable commitment on investment in a system of child care and that if this was not forthcoming, it would not proceed. The Tánaiste would have to admit that such an investment in child care has not taken place. The result is that we have a back to work family dividend, which is €120 over the course of a month, while the average monthly cost of child care is €659, a cost that is simply unachievable for many.

This is the point about the idea of a specific payment for lone parents. We need to treat lone parents and the specific problems they have in terms of child care in a particular way as opposed to lumping them in with all others who are unemployed. In particular, I call on the Tánaiste to comment on those who are currently in part-time work and who would have been able to avail of the payment in advance of the threshold dropping to €90. That has meant a cut for some poorly-paid lone parents of approximately €200.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Currently there are lone parents throughout the country calling into their local Intreo offices, which are provided by the Department of Social Protection, and looking at how they can significantly increase their income. In particular, if they move to 19.5 hours or more they will qualify for the family income supplement which, depending on the number of children they have, is an extremely attractive payment, for which we have very significantly increased the funding.

That is important.

I notice the Deputy did not deny that, notwithstanding the amount of money the State pays to help give lone parents an income, there is a problem with lone parents being at risk of poverty. Over an extended period of time, our social welfare system anticipated that many lone parents, having had a child or children in their 20s, would stay on social welfare for up to 22 years in respect of each child. What we are doing now is offering lone parents a very specific opportunity, when their youngest child is between seven and 14 years of age, to get enhanced support, particularly in regard to education and training but also in regard to going back into employment, if that is a possibility for them. Some 17,000 lone parents have transited up to now and the feedback and the experience is extremely positive, unlike what the Deputy is suggesting. At the end of the day, the best way out of poverty is to get a qualification, because people who have qualifications tend to get better paid jobs, and then to get employment, because being in employment is generally significantly better than having an income that is entirely made up of social welfare only.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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I do not at all deny the fact that lone parents are the social group most at risk of poverty. They have the highest deprivation rate at 63% and the highest consistent poverty rate at 23%. That is partly as a result of successive cuts by this Government and previous Governments, including cuts to child benefit, rent allowance and maternity allowance. The answer to this poverty, however, is not more cuts and more attacks, which is what the Government is proposing. It follows a Thatcherite logic that says the way to get people out to work is to say they will be cut unless they go to do it. The logic is that those who do not go onto transitional allowance but go onto regular jobseeker's allowance, and whose youngest child is over 13, can now be faced with a situation where, if they refuse, for example, to engage in JobBridge or in Gateway, which would cost them huge amounts of money in terms of child care but yield them very little in terms of income, they can face a penalty rate cut in their social welfare. Is that not the case?

With regard to the evidence, I would take the evidence of the group One Family, which says that of the 95,000 parents in receipt of the one-parent family payment when reform was announced, none has benefited from the reform, approximately 10% are worse off financially as a direct result of being activated and all are worse off due to the cuts. The calls total to One Family's "Ask One Family" helpline is approaching an increase of 50% in the past 15 months. Is that a success?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Deputy answered his own question when he said that lone parents had a higher risk of poverty. Unfortunately, that is true for them and their children. My objective is to end that situation for lone parents and to move them out of the category of being at risk of poverty, and particularly to remove their children from that risk. This will be achieved by first giving them opportunities in regard to education, training and qualification so that, when they do take up employment, whether full-time or part-time, particularly when their children are over 14 and settled in school, they will then be in a position to earn an income that can support them and their children.

The irony is that during the Celtic tiger years, when this country was doing very well and we pretty much had full employment, unfortunately, because our social welfare system seemed to require people to stay on social welfare for up to 22 years for each child, as the Deputy is suggesting, the result was that we had more lone parents and their children at risk of poverty than we do now. We are now going to put a significant additional amount of public funding from our taxes and PRSI into, for example, the back to work family dividend, where if a lone parent does take up employment he or she will get to keep all of the child welfare payments of up to €30 a week that they receive in respect of each child for a year, and 50% for the next year.

Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As the Minister has not arrived for the next business, I will take one final question from Deputy Collins.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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We have got through just eight questions and mine has just been dumped into the last few minutes because the Minister is not here. We should be getting through at least 12 or 14 questions in the time provided. Members have been sitting waiting in the Chamber.

Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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First, the Deputy's question was not dumped in; her question is being taken. Second, my role as Chair is to remind Members when their speaking time is up. If they do not adhere to that, and I think everybody is guilty of that at some stage, it is very difficult to control at times. However, I take the Deputy's point and I will pass that point on to the Ceann Comhairle.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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People have put a lot of time and effort into these questions.

Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Indeed.