Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 6:

In page 22, after line 33, to insert the following:

“Report on jobseeker’s transitional payment supports

32.The Minister shall, within six months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a report on employment, training and educational opportunities and supports for those on jobseeker’s transitional payment to include:(a) recommendations to improve casework and employment, training and educational opportunities for those on jobseeker’s transitional payment, including high-quality part-time opportunities;

(b) analysis of how childcare, transport and other public services may facilitate or support access to employment, education or training for those on jobseeker’s transitional payment;

(c) policy options around the extension of jobseeker’s transitional payment to include one parent families with a child up to eighteen years of age; and

(d) policy options around the extension of jobseeker’s transitional payment to include a foster parent of a child up to eighteen years of age.”.

I hope we can make further progress. There are areas of this in which we have had positive engagement. I know the Minister was interested in the issue of supports for one-parent families. We have engaged on that issue in the past. The Joint Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection produced a report with a number of recommendations on supports for lone parents and one-parent families. I recognise that the Minister has taken some of those recommendations on board. It can be seen in the changes relating to partial restoration of income disregard and the increase in the qualified child payments in the budget. I welcome those in the Bill.

A key concern for me relates to a fundamental principle of equality between families. It is the current requirement for full-time availability of somebody who is parenting alone after his or her child reaches the age of 14. Many persons, even those still on one-parent family payment who may have a child of six months to two years, may choose to return to work which may be the right option for somebody parenting alone, and we generally recognise that there is a balancing of care and employment that is done in different ways. I believe there should be extended voluntary access to employment and education schemes for persons with children of any age. Our system recognises that when a parent has children between the ages of seven and 14, the parent has access to back to education schemes and employment options. I debated the question separately. I have not included it here, but subsection (a) relates to case work on employment, training and education opportunities for those on that payment in that crucial period when their child is between seven and 14, including a provision for high-quality part-time options.It is something we have discussed before. It should not be the case that because one is going to work part time it is assumed to be casual work. It should be a ladder to further engagement and a ladder in one's career. It is also crucial there are educational options on the table in that regard. Our system has been designed on the assumption of full-time availability. That is how our system was historically designed. The jobseeker's transitional payment is an interesting opportunity to pilot other approaches to helping people build attachment to the workplace or ladders back into education in a quality way.

I have also suggested integrated connection between issues of childcare, transport and other public services. While I accept that many issues of childcare are not within the remit of the Minister's Department, they are fundamental and crucial for those who are trying to build attachment to the workplace.

The proposals ask the Minister to look at ways we can make the jobseeker's transitional payment work better. That is one key aspect of it. The other key aspect is, as the Minister acknowledged with the increase to the qualified child payment, that teenagers are different. The costs associated with teenagers can be higher. All 14 year olds are not the same. For one parent who is parenting a 14 year old alone, returning to work full time might be absolutely a positive option but another parent may feel the years between 14 and 18 are the crucial years in which they need to know they can come home at 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. and be there with their child in the evenings. It might be crucial for them. The system does not have the flexibility to respond to that because people are required to report full time for work and to be available full time for work while their children are between those ages.