Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The second issue I want to raise concerns a group in society I feel very strongly about, that is, lone parents, particularly lone-parent women. It is a group we need to look at and study in great depth to find ways of dealing with the inequalities, in particular in the context of getting them back into the workplace. We have all had people come to us. Senator Higgins spoke about social proofing and this is one area that, as a society, we need to get to grips with. A lot of work needs to be put into this area. Many lone parents come to me who are phenomenal mothers and who are trying to get on in life. We have to find a way to make the system more friendly in terms of getting them back into the workplace.

The theme I am talking about concerns women and the whole sphere of pensions and work. I have perhaps taken a bit of a liberty in how I have brought that into the discussion but I wanted to put it on the record.