Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

The Government discussion paper, Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents, put forward proposals for the expanded availability and range of education and training opportunities for lone parents; the extension of the national employment action plan to focus on lone parents; focused provision of child care; improved information services; and the introduction of a new social assistance payment for low income families with young children.

The new social assistance payment being developed by officials in the Department will have the long-term aim of assisting people to achieve financial independence through supporting them to enter employment, which offers the best route out of poverty. Although the formal consultation process on the Government discussion paper has concluded, my officials continue to be in contact with lone parents' representative groups, whose views continue to feed in to the development of the proposals.

I fully realise that the proposed new payment cannot be introduced without co-ordinated supports and services being put in place by other Departments and agencies. This is why the Government has instructed the senior officials group on social inclusion to draw up an implementation plan to progress the non-income recommendations in tandem with the development of the legislation required in my Department to introduce the new payment scheme. Once the implementation plan has been successfully drafted, it is my intention to bring proposals for legislation to the Dáil.

As regards the National Economic and Social Council report, the council was asked to examine the feasibility of merging the family income supplement and child dependant allowance into a second tier child income support. Such a payment would be aimed specifically at targeting child poverty by channelling resources to low-income families without creating significant disincentives to employment.

While waiting for the structure for the new second tier support to be finalised, a range of other reforms, increased welfare supports and expanded child-centred services are all combining to make significant progress in tackling child poverty. The most recent figures show that at least 100,000 children have been lifted out of deprivation and hardship inside the last decade as a result of targeted measures and supports.

These include substantial increases in each budget in child benefit rates which directly benefit over one million children; increases of from €21 to €282 a week for families on family income supplement, which is being claimed by almost 19,000 families; some 80,000 families are benefiting from the €40 per child increase in the back to school clothing and footwear allowance; over 350,000 children have qualified for the €1,000 a year early child care supplement, a third of whom are the children of lone parents; and 41,000 child care places have been created under the €500 million equal opportunities child care programme.

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