Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's point but would like some clarity. He spoke about an independent report, rather than a slight change to the wording, within six months. I am concerned by this as the Minister has only recently had an independent report from Millar and Crosse. The Minister has said that the report was not evidence-based, was not broad enough, it gave too narrow a focus and that it only interviewed particular groups and a few lone parents. There was another report recently with regard to lone parents in education, which was supposed to have come before the budget to give some ideas around education. I would like to reiterate to the Minister that lone parents, along with other groups such as disability groups, were really hammered during the austerity years. In 2015 the one-parent family payment was taken away, the back to work family dividend was brought in at a much lower level and the family income supplement was introduced. Two years later, a lone parent who works 20 hours per week has an income that is 17% less than before, even though they are in work and trying to earn money.

If they get sick, they cannot get any support either. As a society, it will be shameful if we do not examine the effect it is having on child poverty and how we can change payments to support lone parents, families and people aged under 25 years. As I said, the poverty rate is 7.9% for two-parent families with fewer than four children. If the Minister does this, I will welcome it.