Cut in lone-parent payment smacks of the jackboot

Published: Friday, June 11, 2010

No matter how the Government spins it, this proposal will hit the weakest in society, writes Jerome Reilly

At first impression, the Government's plan to abolish One-Parent Family Payments once the youngest child reaches 13 years has the heavy stamp of the jackboot about it.

Sometimes first impressions are right on the money.

Though gift-wrapped in weasel words from Social Protection Minister Eamon O Cuiv that the plan is in some way an "anti-poverty measure", the proposal will hit the weakest in Irish society; soft targets who don't have the political clout or the wherewithal to fight back.

It will create a generation of latch-key children. It will force many of the nearly 100,000 recipients, overwhelmingly but not exclusively female, into exploitative, low-paid jobs and it will undermine the fabric of Irish society. It will mean opportunities for the children of single parents to go into third-level education could be curtailed.

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