Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys, for being patient. I would like to begin my contribution to this debate by referring to a section of the website of the Department of Social Protection on which a number of ready reckoners are set out. I am sure the Minister of State is aware that four of the seven examples given on the website show lone parents losing money as a result of these changes. My contribution is based on the words of a lone parent living in the country who wrote to me. She made the point that many small-business employers simply do not want to sign family income supplement forms or formalise anything. They want nothing to do with Government Departments. If a lone parent in a vulnerable position who is looking for work gets a job for a couple of hours a week, he or she will have to try to get the relevant forms signed. The Minister of State knows the way the system in this country works as well as I do. It is unfortunate that he is in the firing line this evening because he is one of the few Ministers or Ministers of State in this place who would go out of their way to help people.

Lone parents are one of the few minority groups that society forgets. They are predominantly women who act as both mother and father to the future of our nation. Since 2012, these people have been particularly targeted for regressive cuts to allowances and social welfare payments. The impact of this is severe. I believe it will have dire consequences for society. These parents, who should be viewed as champions, stand to lose vast amounts of income because they work. This loss in income will result in them being financially unable to provide for their children. It is the children who will suffer. Extracurricular activities will be sacrificed and spending on essential clothing will be reduced. The few rare treats that these children get, like a day out or a trip to the cinema, will become a thing of the past.

Children need social skills. These cuts will see children become socially isolated. Their self-esteem and confidence will suffer. This will have further social impacts for the State as the children of one-parent families mature and realise that the State views them as less than the children of two-parent families. They will see the State punish their parents for working. They will become latchkey kids as a result of this measure. They will see themselves stigmatised, which is most worrying. Stigma should have no place in today's society. The cuts in one-parent family payments have inadvertently caused stigma. They have brought us back to the days when the child of a single woman was considered in a certain way. I will not use the word because there are children in the Gallery. I doubt that this was the Tánaiste's intention when she made these decisions, but it has become the outcome.

Everything I have said so far in this speech is a reflection of the views of a single parent who has written to me about her own personal circumstances. Like every Senator who has spoken this evening on both sides of the House, I am concerned about this issue. Like others, I have received countless e-mails from people who will lose up to €142 per week. It is simply not good enough. The single parent who wrote to me referred to another payment and said that if these cuts are not reversed, lone parents will be in even worse financial circumstances two years from now. The back to work family dividend will have expired and they will no longer be eligible for jobseekers' transitional payments. Therefore, she argues, these people will stand to lose a minimum of a further €90 a week. The woman who wrote to me also pointed out that the €60 offset is not available unless one is working three days a week. If one is working just one day a week, the offset does not apply and one gets just €20.

As I have said, the website of the Department of Social Protection shows the problem with the lone parents' payments that are coming on stream. The European Anti-Poverty Network Ireland has issued a position paper on activation as it applies to lone parents. I do not think I will have time to go through each of the ten recommendations in the position paper, but I will mention some of them. According to the network, the Government should:

...pause and review the rollout of the reform of the OFP so that the underlying problems can be addressed. Reform should only progress if it can be properly resourced so it can be successful for one-parent families.

The Minister of State has been here for two hours, so I will hand him a copy of the other nine recommendations that are set out in the position paper. I ask him to address them back to me through his office so that I can go back to the parent who gave them to me. I thank him for his time. I sincerely hope that when he walks out of here today, he will have lost a vote and will have to tell his senior colleague, the Tánaiste, that she needs to wake up because the country is screaming that this has failed. The Government needs to back out of this flop now before it damages families.