Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I do not think they are. Some people decide to get married or cohabit after they have had children. There is much personal choice and we have many different types of families about which we have learned more in recent years. To return to what Senators were saying, the one great difficulty is the fact that with regard to an income-poor lone parent who does not receive an opportunity, particularly through education, the prediction of the CSO is that the child in turn will become a poor adult. We spend much money and the question we must ask ourselves is whether we could do this in a better way that would produce better outcomes for the lone parent and particularly for the child.