Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I acknowledge the excellent work of One Family and my Department has taken account of its submissions in the past. Localisation is well under way, with 19 local offices processing one parent family payment claims in an attempt to bring the individual closer to the service. That system will be fully rolled out to ensure all one parent payments are localised. There were also improvements in the budget. It is not fair to claim nothing is being done on this issue. An amount is happening, but as I said many times, we must continue to review the structure of these schemes to see how they can be improved. We have all concluded that the one parent family payment can have the effect of locking people into a certain situation. It must be made a more active payment that will encourage people into education and employment.

I accept the Deputy's point about child care as responsibilities in this area are spread over eight Departments. For example, the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government deals with housing issues, while the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform has substantial funds under the equality heading. My Department is involved in paying child benefit. Other Departments involved include the Department of Health and Children, with the provision of crèches. Some of this is unavoidable. However, the matter has been discussed at Cabinet and we will examine how best to tidy up these arrangements and bring more focus to the child care issue.

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