Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In response to the first contribution and the reference on the forcing of women to work, the Senator quoted from the article by the journalist in the Irish Examinerabout being passive. I represent an inner city community and the first point I want to make is that not all lone parents are women. I have seen lone parents in their 40s who have received no training, support, education or assistance to return to employment. Some of them have been out of the workforce for 20 or 25 years and probably have no prospect of finding employment because of the huge gap since they were employed previously. In fairness, in 2004 the Government of which the Senator's party was part made significant investments in terms of throwing cash at lone parents, but the figures show that this did not assist them in getting out of poverty. All of the reports state the best way to get lone parents and others out of poverty is through employment and that is what the Government has been trying to do. The experience in my constituency is that there are numerous people who have not been able to find their way back into employment, even during the Celtic tiger period, because of the long gap since they were previously employed.

The Senator said the Department was passive. It was. In numerous budgets it failed thousands of lone parents either in terms of the provision of training, education or assistance to return to employment. We have moved away from this position.

With regard to child care services, the Senator is very much aware that an interdepartmental committee is looking at the issue and due to report shortly. Additional child care places have been made available.

There is no doubt that there has been major emphasis on the approximately 30,000 lone parents who will be affected by this change. Approximately 20,000 lone parents will experience no change or some gain in income after the transition. The gain for some individuals will be in the range of €10 to €150 per week, depending on their level of earnings and the number of children they have. The remaining 10,000 lone parents, based on their current circumstances, will suffer an income loss. This will occur because they are already in receipt of family income supplement payments or will transition to a jobseeker's payment, for which the means test is less generous than that for the one family payment. The real issue is engagement. Group engagements have been taking place because this is not the first group to make the move. Some of the facts are that those in the initial group have increased their hours and the income coming into the family.

This has been a gradual change. There is tension because approximately 30,000 are to transfer on 2 July. The Senator's colleague made the same points on Second Stage. Senator Katherine Zappone said there had a long debate in the House in which the Tánaiste had engaged extensively with every Senator. I do not intend to go through the details again because they can be read in the Official Report. The amendment has been ruled out of order.