Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on the report on the position of lone parents in Ireland produced by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection and thank the committee for its extensive body of work. I had a chance to speak on this in the Seanad last October and welcome the opportunity to debate this further in the Dáil this evening. There have been some changes since we first had a conversation about this. I thank the committee for acknowledging them. I thank the committee members for the programme of work it has completed in the past 12 months, and particularly the interested parties it has invited in which have given valuable information and practical examples of how life reflects our policy decisions and will, I hope, make an input into those in the future.

As Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection my priorities include the children living in consistent poverty, of which there are far too many, and lone-parent families. Reports such the one produced by the committee and the recent Indecon review of the changes to the one-parent family payment are very welcome, as they help to inform the policy in these areas. Both of these reports have influenced the budget measures that I introduced for lone parents for 2018. Budget 2018 included a range of measures that directly benefit lone-parent families and their children. I will discuss some of these measures in more detail later.

The committee's report outlines the main challenges facing lone parents. These cover several areas including child poverty, activation and education, child care costs, maintenance payments and the changes to the one-parent family payment scheme. It also made 22 recommendations as to how these challenges could be addressed. These recommendations relate to areas that are under the responsibility of my Department, and also to areas under the remit of other Departments including the Department of Children and Youth Affairs on child care, the Department of Education and Skills on educational supports and the Department of Justice and Equality on maintenance arrangements. While I cannot address all of the 22 recommendations this evening I will address the broad areas of concern highlighted in the report and I can assure Members that the recommendations have been carefully considered by officials and the Department.

As I stated in the Seanad, the poverty rates currently experienced by lone-parent families are unacceptable. The Central Statistics Office, CSO, survey on income and living conditions, SILC, for 2016 shows that between 2015 and 2016 there was a reduction in the consistent poverty rate for lone parents of 1.6% to 24.6%, and a reduction in the deprivation rate of 7.8% to 50.1% but an increase in the at-risk-of-poverty rate of 4% to 40.2%. That is not acceptable. There is no doubt that these rates are still too high and that further reductions are needed to improve the lives of lone parent families.

The recent ESRI report on poverty dynamics of social risk groups in the EU also found that high poverty rates for lone parents are not specific to Ireland. That does not give us any comfort. This research showed that across 11 countries, lone parents, along with adults with disabilities, stand out as having higher poverty risks when compared to other working age adults. Lone parents are also most likely to stay in poverty for at least two years.

All of this information shows that lone parents are one of the groups that are struggling. It also shows that poverty is a complex problem but it is up to all of us to solve it. What steps can we take? My view, which is supported by the Indecon report, is that the policy approach of encouraging and supporting people into work is correct, and has positively impacted on lone parents' lives where they have found employment.

We need, however, to do more for these families with no or low paid employment whose risk of poverty is still too high. In budget 2018 I introduced a range of measures that I hope will benefit lone parent families. From March of this year the weekly rates of payment will increase by €5 and the qualified child payment will increase by €2 per week. Both of these increases represent a significant first step to help reduce the poverty rates for these families. The extension of the fuel allowance season by an additional week will also help to support them.

Reducing the poverty rates for lone parents is not just a question of income support. It is essential that we also provide the policy supports needed to help lone parents into sustainable employment. When we talk about helping people find a job, it has to be a job, a better job and then a career. Some people have different views on the Indecon review but it is comforting that it shows that the measures were working, notwithstanding the cuts that were made at the same time as the policy changes. The survey of one-parent families that was carried out as part of this review showed an increase in full-time employment among the survey respondents from 15% to 22%.

We need to continue with this good progress by improving the supports that will help more lone parents to work that pays. There is no point in them getting work that makes them less well-off than they were when they were entirely dependent on welfare so from March this year, I am increasing the earnings disregard on the OFP and jobseeker's transitional payment, JST, from €110 per week to €130 per week allowing a lone parent on OFP or JST to take home an additional €20 per week before it will affect the payment. This builds on previous increases to these disregards that saw the JST disregard increase from €60 to €110 across budgets 2016 and 2017 and the OFP income disregard increase from €90 to €110 in budget 2017. When the budget 2018 increase is combined with the increase in the national minimum wage to €9.55 per hour and the rate increases, it results in an extra €19 per week in the pocket of a OFP and JST recipient with one child who is working 15 hours on the national minimum wage. This is almost €1,000 per year. While it might not seem like an awful lot of money, it is going in the right direction and it is a very good start.

The working family payment thresholds - formerly the family income supplement - for families with one to three children will also increase by €10 per week from March resulting in an additional €6 per week for these families. The legislative sunset clause for the back to work family dividend will also be removed. This effective support will remain available to lone parents and couples who make the transition from welfare to work, including those who also avail of the working family payment. I know that the committee recommended higher increases to the income disregards for OFP and JST and to the child payment rates in its report. I am very much aware, and I hope the committee is very much aware, that I am in sync with what it has recommended. Obviously, I could not achieve it all in one budget. If I am lucky enough, I might be around for a few budgets and we might get to what we are looking to do. However, apart from trying to increase supports for families, the biggest thing we can do is to increase the figure of 22%, who are in the main women, who have received support from my Department and have managed to get full-time employment in the past number of years. We are to keep going until we get up to 100%. In fairness, the budget struck what I hoped was a fair balance between what some of our obligations are to other people on different schemes. I was particularly conscious of the work done by the committee in the report because it was published when I came into office. From my own experience with people in this category, I am well aware of how hard it is to be a parent on one's own.

The committee’s report highlights the importance of access to education to improve the position for lone parents. It also recommends that the activation services provided by the case officers in my Department must tailor these supports specifically to the person and the challenges they face in this category. I agree that supports such as education, training and employment programmes are critical to help lone parents progress to really good sustainable employment. There are already a wide range of financial supports available to lone parents that allow them to participate in the variety of educational and employment programmes available through my Department and the Department of Education and Skills. For example, lone parents on OFP or JST who wish to participate in education can retain these payments and also avail of the SUSI grant from the Department of Education and Skills. Members might be aware that this option is not available to other people on different schemes.

My Department’s employment services also currently provide a case-managed approach to assist lone parents to make a personal plan that is specifically tailored to their circumstances. This plan includes availing of the various educational supports and progressing towards employment opportunities, thankfully, within an ever-improving labour market. For lone parents on JST, the engagement is a proactive tailored support that can be available for up to seven years while JST is in payment. This case-managed approach is being monitored and will continue to be developed over time to offer more tailored progression plans for lone parents that reflect their individual circumstances.

My Department is also a member of the steering committee recently initiated by the Department of Education and Skills to progress the recommendations made in the independent report on barriers to lone parents in accessing third level education. Deputies may remember that this research was commissioned by that Department and published in April of last year. The intention is that an action plan will be agreed by all relevant Departments based on the recommendations of the report. The Department of Education and Skills will monitor progress against the plan. There is some overlap between this report and recommendations made in the committee’s report around educational opportunities for lone parents. For example, both reports recommend introducing more part-time and flexible educational options so this will now be dealt with as part of that steering committee. I would just like to note that the committee's report recommended voluntary access to activation supports for lone parents. This is in fact already available to lone parents so our thinking is similar. Lone parents have always had the option of self-referring for activation supports. All they have to do is literally contact their Intreo centre and we will help. Finally, the Pathways to Work plan developed by my Department also commits the Government to extend activation services to other groups of working-age adults, including lone parents so a lot of good work and progress is happening in this space.

The committee’s report also recommends access to affordable child care. As Members know, this is the responsibility of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. I know that the Minister shares my interest in prioritising supports for lone parents and that her interest in these families goes back to her time not just as a Senator but her advocacy work before that. I know she has a very longstanding interesting in supporting lone parents and in tackling child poverty. The Minister has made great progress in the area of child care in budget 2018 building on previous developments, including the extension of the free pre-school scheme, ECCE, for an additional year and further investment in child care affordability measures, both of which will, hopefully, assist lone parents. My Department will continue to support and assist the Minister and her Department with these initiatives.

The committee's report also included details of some of the challenges facing lone parents when arranging maintenance and recommended the development of a child maintenance agency. Following the completion of the Indecon report, my Department recommenced the review that had been stalled while the work on the Indecon report was ongoing because the same people were working on both reports. I am in discussion with my officials on this currently and I expect to have a paper for the committee relatively shortly. As I promised in the Dáil, I will give the relevant interested parties plenty of time to input to this area. Some Members have already provided me with their reflections on that. However, as any reform in this area is predominantly owned by the Department of Justice and Equality, I must also consult with the Minister for Justice and Equality on the next steps and not stick my two left feet into his Department before I get the nose chopped off me. I also want to confirm that I have followed through on my commitment given in the Dáil last November that in cases of domestic abuse, no lone parent will need to provide evidence in order to satisfy the efforts to seek maintenance condition. I stated then and I state now that we absolutely trust women. We will accept their word and no further evidence will be required. This is departmental policy and is being rolled out to local offices. I only heard yesterday that the circular was issued to all staff instructing them about exactly what we had committed heretofore.

I think I have managed to cover the broad recommendations made in the committee’s report. I again thank the committee members for them. The measures I have outlined covering financial supports, activation supports and my plans to progress the maintenance issues demonstrate my continued commitment, which is shared by Members, to improving the lives of parents rearing families on their own. I suppose we should all be grateful that the economy is out of recession and is growing. Unemployment has fallen from 7.4% in January 2017 to 6.1% in January 2018. Hopefully, we are still going in the right direction. This recovery and the positive impact of recent budget changes on lone parents can only help to further reduce the financial environment in which they live and reduce the poverty rates for these families. As previously promised, I intend to provide for a further review of the OFP scheme when the benefits of these changes can be measured. This review will include data to the end of 2018.

I thank the committee for all its help and invite it, in any deliberations it may have, or if any other Members or organisations are invited in during the coming months, to give me any information it thinks might be relevant as we prepare for this year's budget but also changes in policies that we hope will improve the lives of people who are parenting alone.

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