Ms Mary Roche:

In terms of lone parents, it is about designing and imagining a social welfare system that can support them as opposed to being punitive in respect of their participation in the labour market. The Citizens' Assembly report mentions the importance of public services and we know that this is critical for lone parents. One of the things is access to collective bargaining.

The Maynooth University report on access to third level education for lone parents identified housing insecurity as a key issue. Obviously, there is the issue of childcare. It is important that we support lone-parent families, so that if lone parents want to go back to education they have adequate income to do so. We must ensure the welfare system is not a punitive one that punishes lone parents for returning to education.