Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I came to the House to support my two colleagues and I had no intention whatsoever of speaking. I am trying to remain as calm as I can because the OPFP is nothing more than a great big stick with which to beat lone parents and make them crawl for the miserable shillings they get. Have the officials who wrote the Minister's script ever known a day's poverty in their lives? Do they honestly believe that somebody wants to sit at home as a single parent with no opportunity to work? The officials want these people to do 19 hours work a week. Will they do this in Dunnes Stores or somewhere else where they will be exploited to the last? If the Department wants to provide financial incentives for people to take up work, a State-funded crèche should be set up in every town and village where their child can be looked after. I recently became a grandfather and I heard my son and daughter-in-law talking about the cost of child care. It will cost them thousands of euro every month and they both work. Where will a single parent find that money?

As an educator, I have heard references to personal development plans for years with the belief being that if a personal development plan is put in place everything will be fine. I agree wholeheartedly that education is the way out of poverty. I ought to know because I returned to education when I was 35 years old. However, I had a wife who stayed at home and looked after my family. She was ignored by me for the best part of four years because I spent my time studying. I used to go home for a nap in the evening and wake up late to study into the middle of the night. I know that education pays but I watched as a teacher lone parent after lone parent taking up PLC courses and having to withdraw because of family commitments. I am saddened by this, particularly when crèches are closed or their funding is cut. If we are serious about providing educational opportunities - and I believe the Minister of State is - then we must open crèches in every college and further education centre. We must provide child care facilities to enable people to attain educational qualifications. The new president of TCD's students' union is in second chance education and she is an inspiration to us all.

Flexible education must be provided. I recall visiting a centre in Finglas some years ago where the same syllabus was run three times a day and arrangements were made to enable lone parents to do the course at different times of the day. That worked and such arrangements need to be incentivised in order that those who want to return to education can do so. Let us stop talking about work. Young lone parents probably lack educational qualifications and skills to secure decent, well paid work and, therefore, we should concentrate a little more on education and training to enable them to return to the workforce and earn a salary that will make it possible for them to look after their children.

It cuts me to the quick to hear people talking about lone parents starting up businesses. Where are they to find the few shillings to do this? I watched a lone parent on television the other night who had been left stuck for €180,000 after her husband took off. Where will she get money? The Minister of State is a good guy and the Department does a good job overall but let us not try to put a positive spin on the OPFP and the incentives that go with it. It is about forcing lone parents to find a goddamned job and to stop living off the State.That is the undercurrent that underpins this. When we start talking about incentivising people with children as young as seven to go out and find work, I cannot say a whole lot more about it. I just find the whole thing totally depressing. I am sorry I did not take the time to write a really meaningful speech on this but it breaks my heart, really and truly.