Dr. Tricia Keilthy:

I thank the Deputy for her questions. First, with regard to the social protection system and how we can ensure that it is based on evidence, the National One Parent Family Alliance is advocating for it to be benchmarked against the MESL. We know this is what is required to meet a decent standard of living in society, one that allows people to live with dignity and to meet their cost of living. It is based on the research from the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice. It is focus group, consensus-based research, which estimates the cost of the basket of goods needed in Ireland to both meet basic needs and participate in society. We see this as the most effective way to ensure that our social protection system addresses poverty and ensures a life with dignity. From our point of view, the current gap between core social welfare rates for a lone parent with two children and the cost of the MESL is €82 per week.

To bridge that gap, we would need to see that progressively realised over a number of budgets. Ideally, this would be set out in advance such that people could plan. They would be able to live with certainty then, knowing, if they are on a fixed income, what their income will be for the following year and knowing they are able to meet the cost of living, which is at crisis point at the moment for many families, particularly those parenting alone who are trying to meet all the various pressure points on family budgets, particularly at Christmas time and winter, when energy prices are so high. It is about ensuring that the system is effective, allows people to meet their costs and addresses poverty.

The National One Parent Family Alliance supports the public provision of childcare. We also support the provisions under the EU child guarantee that will ensure free access to childcare for children in one-parent families. We know from evidence from across the world, particularly in Nordic countries, that the provision of publicly funded, subsidised childcare is one of the most effective ways of making work pay for lone parents and ensuring that it is of high quality in order that children get the best start in life

We welcome the expert group's report and hope this can be acted on such that we ensure we invest significantly in our childcare system in order that parents can access employment and education and that families can move out of poverty for good.