Dublin North East Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Cuts to lone parents mean spirited and counterproductive

Published: 16 June, 2010

Councillor Larry O'Toole at Leinster House earlier.

Councillor Larry O'Toole at Leinster House earlier.

Speaking today outside Leinster House at a picket against new cuts in Social Welfare to lone parents and in advance of speaking on the The Social Welfare Bill later this evening, Sinn Féin councillor Larry O'Toole said that the proposed cuts were a counterproductive penny pinching measure and called for the scrapping of the Bill altogether.
Cllr. O'Toole said:
"The Social Welfare Bill is mean spirited, nasty and counterproductive. Minister Mean Éamon Ó Cuív wants to rob the food from the mouths of growing teenagers.

"This Bill isn't an anti-poverty measure. It's the opposite. It's an unscrupulous penny pinching measure. This Bill isn't about shifting people off welfare and into paid employment because the job, education and training opportunities simply don't and won't exist, on the basis of current government policy. It's about shifting lone parents off one welfare payment and onto another less flexible, less supportive and unsuitable payment.