TÁNAISTE AND Labour leader Eamon Gilmore has denied there is any divergence with his Cabinet and party colleague, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton, on childcare provision.
In a Dáil speech on the Social Welfare Bill on Wednesday night, Ms Burton had said that unless she got a “credible and bankable commitment” on childcare in next December’s budget, she would not proceed with a plan to cut lone-parents’ allowance when the child reached the age of seven years.
Campaign groups have warned changes to welfare payments for single parents will end up harming children and exacerbating already high levels of poverty among families. The groups – the children’s charity Barnardos, lone-parents’ group Open and the National Women’s Council – have called on the Government to postpone the changes which are due to be signed into law over the coming days.
Under the proposed changes, all single parents in receipt of the one-parent family payment will transfer onto the jobseekers’ allowance once their youngest child reaches the age of seven.
The Government argues that the move will help end long-term welfare dependency by providing a route towards paid employment.
Denying any split, Mr Gilmore told reporters yesterday: “The Government acts collectively and the position that was set out by the Minister for Social Protection yesterday in the House is the position.
“The reform of the payment of lone-parent support goes hand-in-hand with the provision of childcare,” he added.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said Ms Burton was guilty of “hypocrisy at its worst” and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald asked why, if seven was too young, had the legislation not been altered accordingly.
The Tánaiste told the House that “the reduction in the age goes hand-in-hand with the delivery of childcare” and that was the position of the Minister and the Government.
Mr Gilmore refused to delete section four of the Social Welfare Bill, which proposes gradually to reduce the upper age limit for lone-parent payments to a child of seven, despite Ms Burton saying the age was too young.
“There is nobody in this house or this country who would leave a seven-year-old without care,” said Mr Gilmore. “This legislation is not about what age you would leave a child alone.
“What the legislation is addressing is the age to which the lone-parent payment is payable.”
Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald said it was a Cabinet decision about resources and “we’ll have to see what resources will be available”.
