23 May 2006
Dr. Henry: I welcome the Minister to the House and the publication by his Department of an interdepartmental group study. I particularly welcome his speech as I never believed I would ever hear a Minister state that he considers "lone parents a valuable resource" for the country. He must have had in mind the trouble poor President Putin is having persuading the Russian population to have children. Perhaps the Minister should send him a copy of his speech.
I have been involved with Cherish, an organisation set up about 30 years ago by single mothers for single mothers, since it was founded. Now known as One Family, it focuses on the problems experienced by lone parents. I will definitely bring a copy of the Minister's speech to a reunion for the founders of the organisation which will be held early next month because some of them will be astonished by its contents.
The report contains much useful information. All of us want lone parents to participate more in the life of the country and we must try to remove hurdles preventing them from doing so. Senator Cox, for example, expressed the hope that it would be possible to organise networks to enable lone parents to get a night out. This would be an important step because we know that what is best for the lone parent is also best for the child.
This is a useful report. Given that one must not consider a group of 80,000 people a homogenous group, I was pleased to read on page 78 the suggestion that individualisation of the social welfare system is important. We should first address the problems faced by a small group of lone parents, namely, men and older women, many of whom are widowed or divorced. Some men I know who are in receipt of lone parent's allowance left the workforce because they believed the trauma suffered by their children at the time of the death or departure of their mother was so serious that their best option was to stay at home and prioritise the needs of the family. This is the reason I am slightly concerned about proposals to introduce arbitrary age thresholds for youngest children. I hope a flexible approach will be taken to this matter because those who decide to stay at home may have good reason to do so. We do not know the circumstances of the family disturbance in individual cases. The social welfare service, which is earning much more praise than it used to for its approach to individuals, should determine the reason people who may have had good jobs decide to stay at home. It is important that this small group of lone parents be considered first.
Teenage lone parents make up a separate, relatively small group. Despite the stereotype of lone parents as being 15 year old girls who are pregnant for the second or third time, the number of teenage lone parents is small and is declining. Five years ago, teenagers gave birth to approximately 3,000 children, a figure that has fallen to approximately 2,500.
Mr. S. Brennan: Births to teenagers make up 3% of the total.
Dr. Henry: Yes, the figure is small. It is important not to underestimate, however, that perinatal statistics indicate that this group encounters particular difficulties from the maternity point of view. The teen parent support programme which presented its report yesterday stressed the importance of keeping teenagers in education during pregnancy and while the baby is at a young age. Supports for this group are vital because not all of them have supportive families and they face additional problems if they drop out of education. I was taken by the phrase used by a speaker yesterday that there is a strong correlation between early exit from education and teenage pregnancy and one should note the importance of cause and consequence. If teenage girls fall out of education, they are more likely to become pregnant and if they become pregnant they are more likely to fall out of education. Measures must be taken to address the needs of this group because failure to do so could create a lifetime of problems for many young teenagers. I urge, therefore, that this group be dealt with separately.
On the proposal to provide facilitators when the youngest child of a lone parent is five years old, why must a person who wants help wait until his or her child is five years old? The Minister is correct to state that active supports are more important than passive supports. While considerable sums of money are being spent on lone parents, active supports are required because a large number of the lone parents I have met are demoralised. For example, as Senator Cox noted, a lone parent may not be able to go out or may not have a friend to go out with or someone to give them support. With extended families not as geographically close to each other as in the past, a lone parent may have few family supports nearby and it is important, therefore, that active supports are provided to address this problem.
The Minister correctly pointed out that 60% of lone parents are in employment. While this is good, it is not so good that most of them are in low-paid jobs. Neither long-term dependency on benefits nor long-term low-paid employment is in the interests of either parents or children. Given that lone parents at work have already managed to get themselves into a position in which they get up in the morning, bring their children to crèche or school and go out to do a job, it would be easier to deal with them than the 40% of lone parents who are not in employment.
While I have not found many lone parents who are bone idle, I have found that many of those without work have additional problems. For example, a lone parent may be providing care for a disabled parent or grandparent. Frequently, grandmothers aged in their 40s or 50s go to work, while their children try to care for older people at home. This can be demoralising for the younger person who may wish to work outside the home. Illness, including mental illness and depression, are also important factors. Life is difficult enough - 25% of the population suffer from depression at some point in their lives - without additional problems such as an absent father who does not provide support. When one is left, as Senator Cox stated, holding the baby it is not surprising that exogenous depression sometimes occurs. We must examine the reasons 40% of lone parents are not in paid employment. Lack of child care, an issue ably addressed by Senators Cummins and Cox, is an important factor in this regard because it is impossible to work outside the home if one's child is not cared for adequately.
A further factor which mitigates against lone parents entering the workforce is the prospect of losing one's medical card. The Minister must ensure that the implementing Departments, notably the Departments of Health and Children and Education and Science, come on board when he introduces new measures. The prospect of losing one's medical card is even more terrifying than the prospect of losing rent allowance. With 60% of lone parents having only one child and 25% having two children, addressing this problem will clearly not be an insurmountable task.
We need to get the child care strategy involved. In particular, care for school children must be addressed because it is very poor. Given that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is about to introduce ASBOs, we do not want children returning to an empty house thus becoming another group in danger of receiving anti-social behaviour orders because there is no one there to keep them indoors when things are getting a bit riotous outside. Therefore, the child care issue must be addressed, including school-age child care which is in probably the worst situation. School activities are becoming more organised, including homework clubs which are starting up in school premises and community centres. Support for such activities is most important.
I am glad the Minister has tackled the issue of cohabitation which was a terrible waste of inspectors' time. They were running around the countryside looking in front windows while the man was running out the back. It was a pretty hopeless situation. It is much better if one can have both parents trying to bring up the child, rather than one parent doing so alone.
The situation regarding child maintenance support is a difficult one with approximately 2% of fathers paying up, which is shockingly low. Unfortunately, this is also the problem internationally. In the United Kingdom, they ended up spending more money trying to enforce such payments than was received in support. I do not know how one makes people take on their responsibilities, which they should do, but it is an international problem and not restricted to Ireland.
I congratulate the Minister on bringing forward these proposals. The implementing Departments need to come on board as quickly as possible. The phrase "individualisation of the recipients of social welfare" is important because they are not all the same kind of people and do not all have the same problems. If we separate them out we will find it much easier to implement the report than if it is done on a one size suits all basis, which I am sure will not happen.
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