Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

Entitlement to certain social welfare payments aimed at supporting those parenting alone is contingent on the claimant not cohabiting in a spousal relationship with another adult. I am aware that reluctance on the part of some parents to forego the income security provided by schemes such as the one parent family payment may act as a disincentive to the formation of partnerships and ultimately marriage for recipients. One of the qualifying conditions for the one parent family payment states that a parent must be the main carer of the child and the scheme, as it currently operates, may not sufficiently facilitate joint parenting for couples who are separating. This is why I established a working group in my Department earlier this year to review the income support arrangements for lone parents and to address issues such as the contingency basis of certain payments. A process of consultation with social partners was also conducted as part of this review and the Cabinet sub-committee on social inclusion has been updated on progress.

It is my intention to bring this report to the Cabinet shortly, along with another report conducted by a sub-group of the senior officials group on social inclusion, which was mandated to look at the obstacles to employment faced by lone parents. Both reports will then be published and a further period of consultation will lead to the development of proposals designed to support and encourage all parents in achieving a better standard of living, employment and education opportunities, a better future for themselves and their children and a more appropriate social policy in the future.

See this speech in context