Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact that the Minister took on the arguments made on Committee Stage on the initiation of the work on the report. The facts are evident. The Minister does take them on board. The poverty rate for children in lone-parent families is 22.1%. The rate for two-parent families with fewer than four children is 7.9%. These individuals are included in the poverty traps.

It is critical that we get the report back earlier than September 2017 because we would need to analyse it and go through the evidence produced with the Minister. I welcome what the Minister has done. I did not re-table my amendment because I took from the Minister's comments last week that he would accept the proposals as they stood and have a report produced within six months.

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