Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ba mhaith liom a rá nach n-aontaím gur chóir dúinn an run maidir le Eurodac a thógáil gan aon díospóireacht. I do not agree that we should allow the motion on Eurodac through without a debate. There are a number of issues around it that should be debated fully in the House, so I ask the Acting Leader to reconsider that and give us time to debate that motion.

By tomorrow evening the Labour Party will have a new leader, who may be Deputy Joan Burton. We do not know who it will be. It is quite ironic that she may be moving away from the portfolio of social protection the day after 5,000 lone parents lose their one parent family payment. I hope that anybody in the Labour Party who has voted for Deputy Burton to be the leader of the party has not taken her promises too seriously. If one looks back, one will see that the changes to the eligibility criteria were announced in 2012 and are coming into effect now. Under the new rules introduced as part of the budget in 2012, welfare payments were only to be paid to parents whose youngest child was aged seven or less. The age limit has been reduced year on year from 14 in 2011, and the move will affect an estimated 9,000 families this year and 60,000 by July 2015, when children under the age of seven will lose their eligibility.

At the time, I listened to the Minister with a number of lone parents on the day she announced this change. She made a promise that the measure would not proceed until a system of safe, affordable and accessible child care, similar to what is found in the Scandinavian countries to whose social protection systems we aspire, was in place. The cut is coming into effect today, so where is the Scandinavian-style child care system that was promised by the Minister at the time? The organisation Single Parents Raising Kids claims that the 800 after-school child care places provided for low-income families under the subsidised after-school child care scheme are nowhere near what is needed to assist the 60,000 families affected. No additional training or employment supports have been provided for lone parents and they do not have sufficient child care, so how can they avail of opportunities?

I am calling as a matter of urgency for a debate with whoever will be Minister for Social Protection after the reshuffle to have these cuts reversed until we have in place the Scandinavian child care system promised by the Government.