Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

I agree with her statement on 18 April 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". She must be proud of her inheritance from Frank Cluskey. I knew him well having served in the Dáil with him. He was an extremely good Minister and parliamentarian.

With regard to the Bill, the Minister should be open to amendments from this House. The time limit is tight but there are experienced Members in this House, particularly in the child care area. It is not beyond the capability of the Lower House to consider amendments from this House. I served as Minister of State and I accepted many amendments from this House because I found it always put forward enlightened views on legislation and pointed out provisions that needed amendment. Though she stated it was unacceptable to lower the age limit of the youngest child to seven to qualify for the lone parent's allowance, she has provided for this in the legislation. There is no need to include the provision, "7 years in respect of any claim for one-parent family payments relating to any day occurring on or after 2 January 2014". Her views are aspirational. She wanted to put pressure on the Government to bring in better schemes in order that she would not have to implement this. She rightly wants the Government to change its policy on child care facilities, yet she has the power to remove this provision from this Bill. She did not secure Government approval in this regard. Fine Gael is the majority party and it obviously was not prepared to give in on this. The cut affects mothers who comprise the majority of one-parent families. According to last year's census, one in eight people live in one-parent families, equating to 567,000 citizens in a population of 4.5 million. That is why Fianna Fáil has a particular interest in this area, as the Minister's proposal is contrary to our policy. I compliment the staff of the House for ensuring the updated Bill was printed and available this morning. I expected the Minister to have made an amendment in this regard.

With regard to the amendment to pension provisions, the Minister said that in the case of a person who becomes a voluntary contributor paying contributions under the relevant chapter before 6 April 2013, the number of contributory weeks will change from 260 to 520. What effect will this have? How many people will be affected by this serious change? It will affect people's entitlement to a contributory pension.