A Labour TD came under sustained attack by a group of single mothers today for his refusal to vote against the Social Welfare Bill in the Dáil on Thursday.
Aodhán Ó Riordain was among a group of about 12 TDs and Senators who attended a press conference today hosted by groups opposed to plans by the Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton to restrict welfare support to lone parents once their youngest child reaches seven.
The measure is being presented as an incentive for lone parents to find work.
Lone parents group SPARK (Single Parents Acting for the Rights of our Kids) argue “seven is too young” for single parents to be compelled out of full-time parenting and into the labour market.
Ms Burton said last week she would not implement Section 4 of the Social Welfare Bill without a firm “bankable” commitment in December’s budget that there would be widespread provision of affordable childcare.
Mr Ó Riordain said he was “deeply concerned about child poverty” and he was happy Ms Burton had said Section 4 would not be implemented without adequate childcare provision. He would be voting in favour of the Bill on that basis.
Breda O’Sullivan, (65) from Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, who had come to Dublin to protest about cuts to the domiciliary carers allowance and had decided to join this protest, told Mr Ó Riordain the decision to go out to work should be made by a parent and not be forced on them by Government.
“I wouldn’t leave a seven year-old, I wouldn’t leave a 12-year-old, on their own. And to do it to a child where one parent has already left and then the other one walks out to go to a job, they’d be traumatised again. It’s time to stop this, to let them know before they do it because if they do it, there won’t be any going back.”
Grace Costigan, a single mother, asked Mr Ó Riordain to vote against the Bill tomorrow. “You know it’s the right thing to do Aódhain. If you do we will stand behind you. The safest thing to do for lone parents is to leave Section 4 out, or vote 'no' to this Bill.”
Mr Ó Riordain said: “For some reason I have become the focus of this meeting, and not the children and lone parents who are the reason I am here, and I don’t think it’s fair.”
“I’ve made you the focus,” said Ms Costigan, “because you’re the only one in this room who is going to vote Yes [to the Bill].”
Among other TDs there were Richard Boyd Barrett and Joan Collins, (People Before Profit), Clare Daly (Socialist Party), Eamon Ó Cuiv (Fianna Fáil), Patrick Nulty (Labour Party), Luke Flanagan, Catherine Murphy and Stephen Donnelly (Independents) and Aonghus Ó Snodaigh (Sinn Féin). Senator Jillian van Turnhout (Independent).
