Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show that 26.2% of children in one-parent families are living in consistent poverty. Lone parents have a tough job, one I certainly would not want to have to do. Walking the floorboards at night with a crying baby, with nobody to share the load, is difficult and very rarely a lifestyle choice. The 26.2% of children who are in one-parent families are three times more likely to be living in consistent poverty than children in two-parent homes. In the context of these frightening figures, the findings made in the Indecon report are to be welcomed. I commend all of those involved in working to produce the report. In this House we often note that reports are only as useful as recommendations. Although I would prefer if this time slot was being used to debate legislation to enact the recommendations made in the report, I must concentrate instead on addressing some of the key issues arising from the work done.

The first point to address is the impact of the change in policy some years back which reduced the cap for eligibility for the lone-parent family payment to a measly seven years of age for the youngest child, thereby cutting short the childhood of those affected. This change, introduced under the watchful eye of Fine Gael and the Labour Party in government, left many single parents in no-man's land where they could not afford child care and consequently could not work. It was one of the cruelest decisions made by that Government. In the course of our work we examine a lot of research, statistics and reports, but the one finding that has really stayed with me, more than a year since I read it, is the observation made in the report of the Think-tank for Action on Social Change, TASC, on deprivation indices that many children living in poverty and deprivation had given up on their dreams and aspirations by the age of 13 years. That is a very sad finding which calls to my mind a young girl whose role model was Wonder Woman. Most of us do not get to be Wonder Woman on more than a few occasions in our lives, but that aspiration should not be dead by the time a girl is 13 years of age. That is what poverty does, in contrast to the ability of children in well off families to pursue and achieve their dreams. It is heart-rending to think of the large percentage of children living in deprived areas, as discovered in the TASC research, who conclude at 13 years of age that they will never go anywhere.

This change in policy was unequivocally Thatcherite in its ideology, although some Members might consider that a compliment. Who in their right mind takes the view that childhood costs decrease at seven years of age? What about all of the costly requirements associated with raising children aged seven to 14 years, including expenses associated with sports activities, clothing, illnesses, school trips, voluntary school contributions, school books, after-school care and sports clubs? What if children require mental health support? More and more families who find themselves in that situation are being forced to access treatment privately owing to the lengthy waiting lists. For a lone-parent family, however, dependent on income from the State, that cost is not manageable. The commitment that this policy change would only be implemented when we had a Scandinavian-type child care model was farcical from the beginning. Thousands of families continue to struggle daily with rising child care costs. Being stressed about money does not incentivise work. Worrying about finding affordable child care does not incentivise work. Lying awake at night trying to work out how one might pinch the pennies in order to take one's child out of poverty does not incentivise work. What we are doing to lone parents and their children is not right.

The independent Indecon report was commissioned following an amendment brought forward by Sinn Féin to the Social Welfare Bill. The report outlines the changes made to the one-parent family payment and their impact on lone parents. The evidence set out in the report indicates that there is an increased probability of lone parents being at risk of poverty as a result of the changes. Many lone parents who lost the one-parent family payment remain unemployed. For those who did secure employment, financial well-being has nevertheless deteriorated considerably. There has been an increase in the number of families unable to afford a warm waterproof coat, keep their house warm and eat meat regularly. This is not about being able to afford a €30 bottle of win. but about dire poverty and deprivation. What will living in that type of poverty do to the next generation? Does the Government expect that by allowing children to struggle, living in cramped accommodation in hotel rooms, we will produce a generation of healthy, happy and contributing adults? In its fully costed budget Sinn Féin proposed to restore the one-parent family payment to lone parents of children aged up to 14 years. That is the right policy level, morally and economically, given the extreme poverty experienced by many lone parents.

I welcome the recommendation made in the report that no lone parent should ever have his or her social protection payment threatened or reduced through non-receipt of maintenance from a former spouse. Many relationships end because of abuse and we should never put people in a situation where they lose out on supported payments because they cannot chase an abuser for maintenance. I look forward to seeing this and the other positive recommendations made in the report being implemented by the Government.