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Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall TD today said that without decent public services, all parents, and especially those parenting alone, face enormous costs.
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“Today’s report from the St. Vincent de Paul on the increasing rate of poverty among working lone parents should act as another wake-up call for Government on the deficiences in our public services and the scourge of low wages in Ireland.”
Commenting on today’s report by St. Vincent de Paul on the increasing rate of poverty among working lone parents, Róisín Shortall TD, co-leader of the Social Democrats, said that the report should act as another wake-up call for Government on the deficiencies in our public services and the scourge of low wages in Ireland.
Deputy Shortall said:
“For years the Fine Gael dogma has been that “the best way out of poverty is to get a job”. However, today’s report shows that life is just not as simple as that for many thousands of working lone parents.
“It shows that without decent public services, all parents and especially those parenting alone, face enormous costs. They face them in childcare and rents, in transport and in healthcare, in education and in basic household bills. And all the while, lone parents find themselves disproportionately represented in the very lowest paid jobs in our country.
“The forthcoming National Action Plan for Social Inclusion must recognise the plight of parents in these circumstances. And while employment is important in reducing the risk of poverty it is not the only solution.
“The new plan must set firm targets for reducing costs for parents on childcare and in housing in particular; it must set a clear national goal of eliminating consistent child poverty by the end of the next Dáil; and it must set down a plan to raise the wages of the very lowest paid workers in Ireland.”
ENDS
5th March 2019
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