Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I said, the report will be published before the end of the year. I understand that there are serious data weaknesses in actually gathering information in relation to lone parents. That has been one thing that hampered it. This has not been kicked down the road in the sense that we have made concrete decisions already. Not only did my Department allocate extra money, but the Minister for social protection allocated €500 cash to support lone parents particularly in the back-to-education provision. In addition, the provision for child care represents an investment of up to €8,000 per year for people on low income. Again, that is accessible to lone parents who want to participate in education. There are concrete actions being implemented that I hope will meet a lot of the needs to bring forward more lone parents to participate in third level.

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