Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If Senator Norris had been listening to me rather than talking, he would have heard that I agree with what he said. He is still not listening to me; he just wants to speak when he has something to say.

These households, especially those with children, are at particular risk of ending up in cycles of poverty with generations of a family out of employment. This reform is intended to minimise this. I would like to hear the Minister of State give some explanation as to how the reform is useful in response to the examples given by other Senators.

On the face of it, the purpose of the scheme is quite clear, and the intention is to see a reduction in long-term social welfare dependency. Previous reforms have been successful in this respect. The number of family income supplement applications from lone parents affected by the reforms in 2013 and 2014 tends to highlight that many lone parents have increased their hours of employment to claim family income supplement, which indicates the policy has worked, to be fair to the Government. When it comes to this payment, the facts are quite stark. They show the policy might need changes and I look forward to hearing from the Minister on what will be proposed.

It is anticipated that approximately 30,000 people previously benefited from the payment. Of these, two thirds will experience zero income changes or gain after the measure is introduced, and these gains can be up to €150 per week. It is important to point out the other side of the argument. Obviously, the very difficult situations people endure must be highlighted and are more important. Breaking it down further, the remaining one third of the beneficiaries of the payment, approximately 10,000 lone parents, are in employment and based on their current circumstances will have an incentive to increase the number of hours worked. Of this cohort, approximately 6,000 lone parents will have an immediate incentive to increase the numbers of hours worked to 19 to claim family income supplement and the back to work family dividend. These individuals will then be more financially better off than their current position, but this is dependent on them actually getting 19 hours of work. Many of the parents in this situation may be able to increase their hours given that their youngest child may well be in school at that stage. I acknowledge there is a presumption and that some of this cohort will not be able to increase their hours of work.

There are multiple scenarios where a lone parent would be better off under these reforms. Senator Brennan mentioned that a lone parent with one child who increases his or her level of work from 15 hours to 20 hours per week and claims family income supplement for the first time will gain almost €38 per week if he or she is on the minimum wage. He or she would also be entitled to claim the back to work family dividend for each additional child, increasing income by a further €30 per week per child. This is an improvement and must be pointed out. In addition, a number of child care supports are available and, if required, individuals can avail of the subsidised child care supports provided by the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. It subsidises approximately 25,000 child care places, with many for low-income parents. This includes the after-school child care scheme, which provides up to 500 subsidised child care places for children of primary school age.

We need to commit to ensuring the provision of a better child care model in the forthcoming budget. This is something the Government intends to work to continue to improve. As such, while I appreciate where the motion comes from, I do believe some of the reforms have been worthwhile and it is already the intention of the Government to continue to improve the child care component to match the welfare system. I agree with Senator Moloney and I look forward to hearing from the Minister of State, in particular regarding Senator Moloney's queries.