Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Fr. Peter McVerry, in a letter to The Irish Timeslast week, wrote that these cuts

"will cause unnecessary hardship for thousands of lone parents and their children, and should be abandoned. [...] My experience over the last few years is that, increasingly, the Department of Social Protection has become hard-hearted and even ruthless, to the dismay of some of its own staff."

The crux of this problem is the chaos of child care in Ireland these last years. The last good policy change was when Fianna Fáil introduced the free preschool year. Nothing has happened since, and Ireland's child care costs are among the highest in the 34 OECD countries. The average weekly cost of child care here is €167, although it is much higher than that in Dublin.

Speaking on "Tonight with Vincent Browne" last night, I said it was a gendered cut, as 98% of lone parents are women. This is the most gendered cut in the history of the State and the fact that it has been done by a woman adds to the disgrace of it. The Survey of Income and Living Conditions, SILC, from 2013 showed that 23% of one-parent families live in consistent poverty.