Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein)

Ní chuirfidh mé aon mhoill ar an díospóireacht seo. Ceapaim go bhfuil an reachtaíocht seo á bhrú tríd i bhfad ró-thapaidh. Níl ciall nó réasún leis an bealach ina bhfuil an sceideal le haghaidh an Bhille tábhachtach seo á eagrú. I note that the timing for the amendments to this Bill is absolutely ridiculous. It is a disgraceful way to put through an important piece of legislation that will have a massive impact on people across the country.

In her speech, the Minister, Deputy Burton, mentioned a couple of the Government's aims, one of which is "empowering and enabling people to participate in work". She also said we "have to ensure the neediest in society are protected". I find it astounding that the Government, Fine Gael and the Labour Party are targeting lone parents for such savage cuts. This is disgraceful and I call on all Members not to support those sections of the Bill.

Many in this Chamber are parents and I remind them that all parents are just "one step away from being a lone parent", something everyone should take into consideration. I did not come up with this phrase; it came from a lone parent in one of the organisations that lobbied against the changes proposed in the Bill. I have great respect for Senator Healy Eames, but I found her contribution quite patronising towards lone parents when she spoke about the dependency mentality and suggested that lone parents need mentoring. I know quite a lot of lone parents. They work very hard for themselves and their children. They are very industrious, clever and try their best to improve through education. They make their money stretch as far as possible and would be fantastic at running most businesses. They would probably do a great job as Ministers for Finance because they are so clever and frugal with the money they have. To say they are in need of mentoring is incredibly patronising.

The Senator drew a comparison between the situation of lone parents and her own. She said that at times her husband appears like a lone parent at home. However, there is a substantial difference. He may be at home carrying out the parenting responsibilities, which is laudable, but there are two incomes going into that family, with a fairly handsome income coming from her job in the Seanad. The major difference between her situation and that of lone parents is that lone parents have only one income and are very much dependent on the payments they get. It is appalling that the Government would choose to target them in this Bill and I call on all Members not to support section 4. We must take the elephant in the room - unemployment - into consideration. We hear about how much is being spent by the Department of Social Protection. I agree there is a huge amount being spent, but the main reason for that is we are spending so much on people who are unemployed. This is because the Government has not made a major impact on unemployment.

I would like to note the changed tune of the Labour Party. Less than two years ago, the Fianna Fáíl Government dropped the cut-off age for lone parent payments to 14 years and along with Sinn Féin, the Labour Party objected to this move on the grounds that the necessary supports and services were not in place. That has not changed. I also note that at its recent conference, the Labour Party was called on to refrain from imposing any further cuts on benefits for lone parent families that would create further barriers to accessing work and education opportunities. Therefore, I cannot understand how Labour Party Members can come into the Chamber and support section 4 of this Bill. They must oppose it. I am not trying to play party politics on this; I am quite serious. It is essential we rethink this.

As Senator Power mentioned, there was very little consultation with the lone parent advocacy groups . Frances Byrne, director of OPEN said:

There is a huge fear among lone parents that the changes being proposed to stop the One Parent Family Payment when children reach the age of seven will make it increasingly difficult for parents to meet the costs of raising a family alone. The majority of lone parents are already in work or want to work but the ongoing lack of supports such as reliable and affordable childcare and afterschool care present impossible challenges, as the government cannot address this by 2015. Removing the One Parent Family Payment and moving parents to Job Seekers Allowance without addressing the absence of appropriate supports will inevitably push more families into poverty and welfare dependency.

Not only is this unfair to those lone parents, but it will also force many of them already working, paying taxes and contributing to the Government's coffers back onto social welfare payments full time. It makes no sense.

We also have to put this into context with the other budgetary cuts that affect lone parents. There has been a reduction in the income disregard, a reduction in the entitlement age, CE schemes are effectively closed to lone parents, university contributions were increased and grants were cut, back to school clothing and footwear allowance have been reduced by €50, school transport contributions have increased, the household charge applies to lone parents who own homes, the fuel allowance has been reduced by six weeks, child care subvention rates to community crèches have been cut by 5%, the JobsBridge programme is not open to lone parents, and single parents must now pay €25 a week towards child care when participating in FÁS and similar courses, etc. These all impact on lone parents and we cannot look at this move in isolation. The Minister spoke about pathways to employment, but section 4 is a pathway to unemployment.

Sinn Féin intends to raise other measures in the Bill on Committee Stage. The change with regard to calculating jobseeker's payments by moving from a six to a five-day week does not make sense and the examples given so far in this debate show that. We should move to a situation where the number of hours per week somebody works should be taken into consideration. We will also have some points to make with regard to the pensions scenario.

I call on all Senators not to vote in favour of section 4 of this Bill. It is unfair, inequitable and wrong. It is not fair that the Government and the parties involved are focusing on lone parents with this punitive treatment.