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 for lone parents; and the introduction of a new social assistance payment for low income families with young children. The paper also proposed the abolition of the cohabitation rule as a condition for receipt of the proposed social assistance payment.

One of the proposals in the report was that the upper income limit for the new social assistance payment should be set at €400 per week. In budget 2006, I increased the upper income limits on the one parent family payment from €293 to €375 per week. In budget 2007, I completed this element of the proposal by increasing the upper income limit for the one parent family payment to €400 per week thus meeting the proposals in the Green Paper.

In addition, the report recommended increasing the qualified child increase for recipients of the one parent family payment. In budget 2007, the three rates of qualified child increase, which had been maintained at the same levels for a number of years, were combined into a single rate of €22 per week in respect of over 340,000 children of welfare families.

The new social assistance payment, under development in my Department, will have the long-term aim of assisting people to achieve financial independence through supporting them to enter employment — the avenue that is widely agreed to offer the best route out of poverty.

Any proposed new payment can only be introduced when the necessary co-ordinated supports and services are put in place by other Departments and agencies. That 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 a new payment scheme. Work on the development of this implementation plan is continuing. Issues, including access to child care support, education, training and activation measures continue to be discussed with the relevant Departments and agencies.

To further develop the process, my Department, with the co-operation of FÁS, the office of the Minister of State with responsibility for children and the Department of Education and Science, are to test the proposals in both an urban and rural setting. These tests will focus on identifying and resolving the practical and administrative issues that may arise in advance of the scheme being introduced. This will allow for operational and logistical co-ordination between the relevant Departments and agencies to be considered and will facilitate the development of the new scheme as soon as possible.

See this speech in context