John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the officials for giving their time again. I will briefly address the report because it is the outcome of an amendment I tabled to the Bill, one which, thankfully, the Minister supported. This work to identify the precise impact is critical and badly needed. Arising from visits to our clinics and so on, members have anecdotal evidence of the impact the changes have had on individuals and families.

This will put all of those issues to the fore.

I welcome the fact that it is now in process. Yesterday was the closing date. I also welcome the fact that eight parties have come forward and expressed an interest in it. I am interested in the next stage because the Minister gave a commitment that this would be published in time to feed in to the budgetary discussions for next years' budget. I believe a date in August has been mentioned. It is critical that this date is adhered to. I do not want this to be just another report gathering dust on a shelf. It needs to be a report with actions coming out from it and specifically feeding in to the budget. While the crux of the report is the focus on the issues stemming from the changes going back to 2012, I would be interested to find out more. This morning the committee had a very good contribution from Focus Ireland which gave us all the facts and figures with regard to lone parents. The figures show that 65% of homeless families are one-parent families. This area needs to be looked at in relation to this report. I believe the changes that have been made to the single parent payment have had a direct impact on homelessness for lone parents also. This critical part of the report needs to be looked at and fed back to the committee.

The witnesses say that over the coming days the Department will be speaking to the Office of Government Procurement. Is that by the end of this week or next week? It is crucial that this does roll out as fast as possible to hit the deadline of August in order to inform the budget discussion. It is an ambitious deadline and this was alluded to in the Department representative's contribution today. Perhaps the committee could hear a little bit more about this. I also want to touch on the matter of the long awaited report on the barriers to third level education for lone parents. It is long overdue. The Department acknowledges that it received the first draft in September last year. It has now gone out for a second drafting I believe. Will the witnesses indicate when we can expect to see that report? It is long overdue and badly needed. When will we get to see that badly needed report?