Martin Cullen (Waterford, 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 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 — something with which we would all agree.

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. This proposal was completed in budget 2007 which in effect meant that the upper income limit increased by more than one third in two years.

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 several years, were combined into a single rate of €22 per week in respect of more than 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 on the ground by other Departments and agencies. This is why the Government has instructed the senior officials group on social inclusion to create an implementation plan to progress the non-income recommendations in tandem with the development of the legislation required in my Department to introduce any new payment. Discussions are ongoing with the relevant Departments and agencies on issues including child care, education, training, and activation measures.

As part of this process, my Department, with the co-operation of FÁS, the Office of the Minister for Children and the Department of Education and Science, is to test the non-income, activation proposals in Coolock, Dublin and in Kilkenny. These tests, due to commence in October, 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 policy and operational details of the new scheme.

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