David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am dealing with reality, which is the large number of people who contacted me and the meetings I attended with lone parents who are losing, rather than gaining, money. For any Senator on the Government side to say five out of the six people who contacted him will gain money is incorrect. The majority of women in receipt of lone parent's allowance will lose money because of the measures the Government introduced. It is women in work who will suffer the most.

This is ideological. We see the same with the Tories in Britain. We heard the mantra from a Government Senator that this is about making work pay. It is about cutting money and supports for women who are in work. The women who will lose out are those in work. We have heard examples of those who will receive less in their pay packets. One Labour Party Senator agreed and gave examples of women who will be down €140 a week, which is a significant amount of money. That is the reality that will impact on many lone parents because of the changes being introduced.

The reason the Tánaiste said in this Chamber and in the Dáil in 2012, I understand, that she would not introduce these measures unless Scandinavian, as she put it, or universal child care was available, was because she recognised at the time that if she proceeded with these changes in the absence of child care, it would be a disaster. Women would not have the money to pay for child care and it would not be in place for them. She accepted that at the time, but has now proceeded with the changes and will continue with the cuts.

The Government cannot defend these cuts. How can work pay when 20% of the workers in the State are on low pay? Many of the workers we are discussing are on low hour contracts, even some of those who want to work extra hours, and the Government has done precious little about it. They may work in the retail sector on low hour contracts and want more hours, but they cannot get them.Therefore, it is illogical for the Government to say this cut is about encouraging women to work more and about ending a dependency that some lone parents may have on welfare. These are some of the arguments cited by the Fine Gael side also. It is absolute nonsense. This is a cut and that is all it is. It is meant to save money. It is an ideologically driven move by the Government, supported mainly by Fine Gael. It is, as other Senators have said, amazing the Labour Party is supporting these changes. If the Minister of State was standing where I am and his party was in opposition - it was in opposition, it railed against everything the previous Government did, it was often right and it stood on the same side as Sinn Féin, Independents and others when it opposed many of the changes introduced by the previous Government - and if a Fianna Fáil Government tried to introduce these changes, he would not support it. Therefore, why would he do it in government and why would he expect me or anybody else on this side to support him? He knows this is wrong. The Labour Party people know it is wrong. Deputy Emmet Stagg in the Lower House wrote to one of his constituents saying it was wrong but yet voted differently. Many Labour Party Senators say they do not like a lot of this but they do not want to lose the Whip because they would lose their influence. Labour Party Senators have no influence in government and that has been proved time and again in this Chamber when they voted for all the Fine Gael budgets and all the cuts. It is again supporting Fine Gael on this cut.

Sometimes the medicine has to be doled out. We are the people, along with members of the Labour Party, who must look the people affected by this cut in the eye and say we made the arguments but again the Government did not listen. It has pressed ahead with changes which it knows are unfair and which we and the Minister of State know will drive more women into poverty. There are more people in poverty in the State than when the Government came into office. Report after report shows that and this cut will deepen child poverty. For that, the Government should be ashamed of itself. It has done it over and again with many of the measures it has introduced and here it goes again. I wholeheartedly support the motion. I hope it is passed and that the Government comes to its senses and reverses a cut which will drive more people into poverty.