Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not take lectures from the Senator. I listened with courtesy to Senator Mary White, no matter how provocative she was. It is fair to make the point that Members should listen with courtesy.

I have not seen any e-mail from Deputy Emmett Stagg, but we had an extensive debate in this House on the lone parent's allowance. I participated in that debate, as did others, and we are all agreed on the need to ensure lone parents move out of the poverty trap in which welfare dependency has left them. If anyone doubts this, I urge him or her to look at the figures for the risk of poverty status of lone parents. They show that, even at the height of the boom, they were at a vastly heightened risk of poverty because of welfare traps and welfare dependency. What the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, is seeking to do in the reforms is to ensure activation measures will be put in place to move lone parents out of welfare dependency-----