What does the Government have against lone parents? On 2 July next, lone parents working more than 19 hours per week will lose the one-parent family payment when their youngest child turns seven years of age. Up to 32,000 families will be affected by this measure and in many cases their incomes will be slashed by up to €80 per week. By any yardstick or objective analysis, this is a cruel and brutal cut. The Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, has been persistent and consistent in reducing the age threshold for this payment. It was reduced from 14 to 12 years in 2012 and to ten years in 2013 and is now being reduced to seven years. When one takes into consideration that the deprivation rate among lone parents is 230% higher than it is among the general population and 33% higher than it is among those who are unemployed, this measure amounts to a serious attack on the quality of life of lone parents.

The implication from the commentary emanating from the Government and Minister for Social Protection is that lone parents are somehow not doing anything at home when they are looking after children or in part-time employment. The measure is appalling by any standards. The Minister promised the various activist groups that she would not introduce it until a Scandinavian model of child care had been put in place. One newspaper columnist - I believe it was Victoria White - made the telling point that the nearest thing we have to a Scandinavian child care model is the drop-off facility at IKEA stores.

It is insulting to argue that this measure will move people into employment because the proposed cut comes on top of many other cuts introduced in successive budgets. For example, the income disregard for lone parents who secure employment was reduced from €147 to €90, lone parents were effectively barred from vocational education committee and community employment schemes which act as a gateway back into employment and changes were made in the second payment allowance. I ask the Taoiseach, in the interests of social justice and equality, to show a degree of solidarity by not proceeding with this measure and reversing the policy on which the Minister for Social Protection has embarked, which targets and treats one-parent families in a most cruel manner.

I do not accept Deputy Martin's view of what the Government is doing in this area. The reason many people are in great difficulties is the extent of jobless households. What is involved here is a reduction of the disregard not in the rate of payment. The plan set out by the Government is to make work pay in all cases. We cannot allow an economy that is beginning to recover to bypass thousands of families who are locked into jobless households. These households, particularly those where there are children, are at particular risk of joblessness being perpetuated from one generation to the next. We have evidence of this for many thousands of people. The work activation programmes introduced by the Government have transformed the way in which the State supports jobseekers to get back to work and makes work pay.

How does making people poorer activate them?

The focus in years to come will be to extend services that improve a person's ability to work. The purpose of the reforms introduced by the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection is to reduce long-term social welfare dependency by ending the expectation that lone parents will remain outside the workforce indefinitely. That is what this is about. These reforms aim to provide the necessary supports to lone-parents to help them to access a range of education, training and employment programmes, develop a skill set and, ultimately, secure employment and financial independence.

They can no longer afford to access education.

As Deputy Martin is aware, a range of measures has been introduced to assist lone parents. They include the jobseeker's allowance transitional arrangement, the back-to-work family dividend-----

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

----and the re-rating of the family income supplement. All of these measures are designed to assist rather than do down lone parents and give them an opportunity to get back to work. We have also provided enhanced access to the Intreo service and JobsPlus scheme and introduced elements of child care provision. The measure does not involve a reduction in the rate of payment lone parents receive.

They are all happy.

It is a reduction of €80 a week.

Deputies should be quiet and listen to the answer.

The Taoiseach is some republican.

It is a reduction in the offset that applies to what they can earn at the higher level. The reduction is not in the rate of payment lone parents receive.

Those most damaged by the change are people at work.

All of the issues and incentives that have been introduced for lone parents are aimed at overcoming the expectation that lone parents will never be able to return to work on a full-time basis or have an opportunity to retrain, upskill or secure financial independence. They are also intended to deal with the expectation that joblessness in households will continue. This is where the real problem lies for many thousands of people and the Minister introduced these reforms to put an end to that.

What is frightening about the Taoiseach's response is the ignorance it displays in so far as he does not appear to understand the issue. The issue is not a reduction of a payment but the elimination on 2 July of the one-parent family payment when children reach seven years. Does the Taoiseach understand that this is what is happening? I cannot understand how he can credibly come into the House without realising what his Government and Minister with responsibility for welfare are doing. It is a scandal.

The Taoiseach referred to the idea of expectation. As a politician, I have worked with lone parents for many years. The measures introduced in the late 1990s were progressive and there was a progressivity as time evolved in terms of moving into work. It is insulting to lone parents to state there is an expectation that they will be welfare dependent for the rest of their lives simply because they qualify for the one-parent family payment. That is an insult which reflects a mindset and policy orientation that are as Thatcherite as one could get.

Tories.

It is elitism.

This right-wing attitude has seeped into Fine Gael and, regrettably, the Labour Party.

It was always there.

No one is standing back and saying this will hit one-parent families by up to €80.

The Deputy should ask a question as we are over time.

The family dividend is worth up to €80. I have a copy of the tables, which show that the elimination of the payment will result in a reduction of €50 in the first year, €65 in the second year and €80 in the third year. I want the Taoiseach to stand back from the gobbledygook and language of social engineering that are emanating from the Department or elsewhere and get down to the reality of families on the ground who will lose a substantial amount of money in addition to all the other cuts. For example, funding of €50 million for the back-to-school allowance has been abolished, maternity benefit is being taxed and the income disregard has been reduced.

We have been through all that.

These measures have a cumulative impact on lone parents who, among all the groups in the social welfare code, have been targeted in a most brutal manner. We have inquiries into mother and baby homes and all of that.

I ask the Deputy to recognise the Chair, please.

This is a new targeting of families who need to be targeted least and require support instead. I implore the Taoiseach to speak to the Minister and prevent this measure from proceeding on 2 July. The silence on the Fine Gael back benches eloquently attests to how correct and accurate I am in describing this issue.

Deputy Martin has moved to a point where he expresses his understanding of just how ignorant other people are. This is coming from a person who represented a Government which cut the blind pension and made 12 other cuts in social welfare payments without any discussion.

Did the current Government restore the blind pension to its previous level?

Quiet, please.

Perhaps the Deputy should reflect on his role in times past.

Answer the question.

The position is that lone parents are not being targeted.

They are.

They are.

They are being supported. The answer to transforming the opportunity for any family is-----

Give them nothing.

-----to get away from social welfare dependence and into the world of work.

The Taoiseach is some republican.

What the Government is doing is introducing a range of opportunities for lone parents and others-----

Such as.

-----to be retrained and upskilled to achieve financial independence by getting a job that pays-----

The Government has taken them from CE and VEC schemes.

This is absolutely shocking

-----either through the jobseeker's allowance transitional payment, the back-to-work family dividend or the re-rating of FIS.

On which they receive no subsidy.

The Deputy has had an opportunity to speak.

These are all designed to assist people to get away from social protection dependency and into the world of work.

But they do not.

Does the Taoiseach not understand they are still at a loss?

It was always the case with Fianna Fáil every time it came to a budget that the people concerned were thrown a few more quid to buy them off.

It is a case of throwing them to the lions.

In this case, we need to transform what we are doing in getting people back into the world of work, including lone parents. Many of them have said to me that this is what they want to do.

Do not cod us.

They want to be able to find a job.

Did the Taoiseach meet them on the streets?

That is an outrageous comment to make, as the Taoiseach knows.

The Deputy may well laugh at lone parents if he wants to, but many of them want to move from social protection dependency to financial independence by having an opportunity to go out to work.

Of course, they do, but they also want to mind their children.

The reforms to the schemes are designed to help them to do this.

How will they pay the child care costs for a seven year old?

A seven year old child will be in school.

Fifty two weeks of the year.

Will Members, please, stay quiet?

When we launched JobsPlus or the jobseeker's allowance, it was perfectly obvious that we had one of the highest rates of jobless households in Europe. That is one of the causes of the financial difficulties people get into.

Therefore, lone parents have to pay for this.

The reforms are designed to help lone parents-----

By penalising them.

-----to achieve financial independence by upskilling and following through to a job that pays and benefits their families.

The Taoiseach should talk to the groups.

He should speak to the Tánaiste, in particular. She might explain to him what is happening.