Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is an outrage. We have to decide where we spend our money, how we spend our money and how we spend the taxpayer's money. We have to decide whether we want to bring in policy decisions on spending that are going to bring about massive cuts to lone parent payments. I will give an example of the impact of the loss of the one-parent family allowance on a family unit of one parent and one child, with the parent earning the minimum wage of €8.65 per hour exclusive of previous losses due to cuts to the income disregard, for example. If the parent works 20 hours a week, they will receive a wage of €173; one-parent family allowance of €176.30; a family income supplement, FIS, payment of €94; and a fuel allowance of €10. Before the cuts in July this year, their take-home pay was around €453. That is now being cut by €50, or 11%, in July, down to €400. From July next year, it will go down by a further €15 to €387 and in July 2017 that will go down to €372, giving a cumulative total cut of €80.

This is wrong. It is hitting children. We are going into 2016. Remember the words of the Proclamation: cherish all the children equally. Unfortunately, some children will have less of a chance to develop than others, given the State's intervention in slashing these payments.