Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is an important section which reflects the genuine effort by the Minister to deal with what Senator David Norris rightly described as an extremely difficult situation. I would not necessarily disagree with the Senator when he attributes the difficulty to capitalism. We had a right-wing government in this country for 14 years and a particularly right-wing Administration for nine of those years. It was, however, a rather warped version of right-wing government in a context where, for instance, two year olds were being allocated a back to school clothing and footwear allowance. That was bizarre. How could anybody justify a system where parents were receiving a back to school allowance on behalf of their two year olds?