Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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There are a number of questions. I will take Deputy Bannon's question on the public services card first. I understand the company which does the work is a subsidiary or part of De La Rue. It is based in Bray. I am aware that there are some external inputs into the software systems, but I can get the Deputy more detail. Significantly, it is an Irish operation. It has gone quite well so far. In November, we will reach 1 million cards.

The cards have hugely increased security. The use of the biometric photo means that when someone gets a card, their photograph is automatically matched with all of the photographs on the major database. For instance, on a weekly basis the Department gets matching photos where someone has turned up, say, in the Athlone office, who on a biometric basis has an exact facial resemblance to someone who has been in the Longford office, and that has been a significant assistance in deterring fraud.

The printing is done in Bray, and there is a Dutch company which has been involved in the technology software side of it. It is to airport standards of biometric identity and it has been helpful in limiting cases of multiple identity fraud which is a problem for all social welfare systems around the world.

In response to the comments of Deputies O'Dea and Ó Snodaigh on lone parents, when I became Minister I decided that we should be as ambitious for lone parents to work as we are for anybody else who is out of the workforce. The key way back for considerable numbers of lone parents, particularly the young, is to engage in education. Happily, a significant number of lone parents do so. In the countries that have successful support systems for lone parents and good outcomes for the children, getting lone parents into education and training and then back to work, which may take a protracted period of time, is the way to do it. Therefore, in the structure we have devised, lone parents will move, after their youngest child is seven, to a transitional transition-to-work lone parent payment, and that will continue for another seven years. To date, the system is operating well.

As I stated earlier, in terms of the agreement in July with the Taoiseach, we are introducing further targeted supports. This also addresses Deputy Daly's point that some employers state they still feel that drawing lone parents back to work can be difficult. In my experience, it is difficult in two particular areas - where someone has children because he or she is getting the qualified child increase, QCI, which is €30 a week, and where there may be problems for those who are on rent supplement. The move to the housing assistance payment, HAP, via the local authorities, which is being piloted in Limerick, should also solve the latter employment trap. In terms of the working family dividend, that will apply whether it is a lone parent or somebody who is in a relationship, whether cohabitation or marriage. We are making good progress there.

One should note that lone parents qualify for family income supplement, FIS. Many lone parents who go to work are opting to go on FIS, which is an attractive top-up for somebody who is leaving social welfare, either completely or on a partial basis to take up part-time work. Deputy Bannon will be aware that I gave significant allocations, last year and the previous year, to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs for further supports in child care because in all my discussions with lone parent groups and parents in relationships, the cost of child care is a significant factor. I allocated €14 million to assist in both aftercare and community care services, and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs has been working to expand that system.

Through our facilitators in all of the Intreo offices, including the offices in Limerick which Deputy O'Dea visited with me, we have employment officers who will specifically look at the needs of lone parents and seek particularly to help them. I appreciate the point that it is a big change, but I believe that change is working positively.

I am particularly happy that there is a strong emphasis on education. We also have expanded and improved significantly the training provided, for instance, to those who participate in community employment, CE, and who undertake child care. Quite a number of those who take on child care in CE are lone parents. Many might be older women who have partially reared their families and are interested in taking up a new career in their late 30s or in their 40s. We are ensuring that participants are trained to FETAC level 5. That has been positive.

In respect of farm assist, I can confirm the numbers are dropping. The payments have dropped by €7.85 million. That is a reduction of 7.9%. In general, the current trends in farming and the weather last year and this year probably had some impact on that. On farm assist, as with the self-employed, as I stated in Wexford in recent days, we in the Department are flexible. If a farmer or fisherman or someone who is self-employed experiences a catastrophic fall or collapse in income because the business has gone to the wall, as happened during the economic collapse, we are able to provide a service in real time to him or her. Before I became Minister, such a person had to go and get two or three years' accounts, which is expensive. If one does not have any money, it is difficult to pay an accountant to sort out one's accounts. We are now doing it in real time based on the person's income as he or she goes into the office. As a consequence, I am happy to say the situation that existed in 2011, where many who had previously been self-employed had no access to social welfare, has been changed. I would be interested to hear from members if they have any problems in this regard. We are now able to meet the requirements of almost everybody, including farmers and fishermen. That has been confirmed by the Mangan advisory group which took a look at this at my request because I was anxious, because it is becoming so significant, that those in self-employment who lost their business would not be ineligible. The entitlement is subject to means testing but the system is now working favourably.