Labour whip Emmet Stagg's opposition to Tánaiste Joan Burton's policy of transferring 30,000 single parents from the lone parent's allowance is shared by other Labour TDs and Senators.

Parliamentary party members said on Thursday there are very mixed views within the party on the policy. Like Mr Stagg, other TDs and Senators have received complaints in correspondence and at their clinics from constituents who have lost the lone parent’s allowance.

In a leaked email that caused embarrassment to the Labour leadership, Mr Stagg expressed the view that the policy initiative of his party leader was a “bad decision”.

Seized upon

The email was seized upon by Opposition parties and was brought up by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin during Leaders' Questions in the Dáil.

Both Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin have said the design of the job activation measure was flawed as there was a lack of childcare for parents who wished to return to work.

In addition, they argued that to qualify for the two allowances that would bring their incomes substantially up, lone parents needed to work 19 hours each week. Many faced situations where their employers were unwilling to give them extra hours.

In his email, Mr Stagg stated: “I simply fail to see how cutting the income of the very ones who are making a real effort to improve the lot of their families and themselves helps in some way to get out of the poverty trap.

“It clearly has the opposite effect. I will continue to press for a reversal of this bad decision.”

Strongly defended

However, other members of the party have strongly defended the measure as a positive one, including the Dublin Mid West TD Joanna Tuffy.

She said on Thursday that the initiative was a good one and that many of those working parents could increase their allowances by a substantial amount if they succeeded in working 19 hours.

Ms Burton, for her part, accused Fianna Fáil of spending €1 billion each year on the allowance without bringing forward any activity measure that would help single parents to escape poverty.

Senior Labour sources pointed out on Thursday that Mr Stagg and all of the parliamentary party had voted for the lone parent changes that they were “now railing against. So they were for them before and then they are against them now.”

Separately, a spokesman said the previous scheme had simply not worked.

Prior to these reforms, a lone parent could have received the payment until their youngest child turned 18, or 22 if in full-time education.

“That was the State effectively saying it had no ambition for these parents, no desire to take the necessary steps to help them return to work, training and education and build a better financial future for themselves,” he said.