Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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1. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her plans to postpone the proposed changes to lone parent payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9402/15]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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I have tabled this question to ascertain whether the Minister intends to proceed with the change to the lone parent's allowance conditions which is scheduled to take effect from July.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Last Tuesday I announced in my Second Stage address on the Social Welfare Bill that I was proposing to amend the July arrangements for lone parents to ensure lone parents with a youngest child between the ages of 7 and 16 years who were providing full-time care for another person would be able to retain entitlement, or apply for entitlement, to the one-parent family payment and the half rate carer’s allowance. These arrangements are identical to the current provisions where a one-parent family payment recipient is providing full-time care for a child in respect of whom a domiciliary care allowance is in payment. I am proposing no further changes to the July measures.

Notwithstanding the strong welfare supports given to lone parents during the years, the results have been disappointing in poverty alleviation terms, with some lone parents remaining on the payment for up to 18 years or even longer if they have a number of children. We know that it is important to provide lone parents with educational training and employment supports to enable those parenting on their own to reach their full potential. This means that as their children get older, we should focus on developing their skills to help them to secure employment or set up a business.

Since the one-parent family payment reforms began, approximately 11,000 people have transitioned to alternative income support payments. In the past two years we have seen an increase in the number of applications for family income supplement from lone parents moving to employment. This is evidence of the positive impact of the reforms. Other customers who transition from the one-parent family payment to a jobseeker's allowance payment gain access to education, training and employment programmes, including the new back to work family dividend which is is worth €30 per child per week, to assist them to move into sustainable employment. This involves engaging with one of the Department's case officers who will assist lone parents to produce a personal development plan and work with them to progress it. This is a significant step as it is the first time that this group of customers will have access to an active engagement with the Department's case officers.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister said earlier this week that she had spoken to a number of lone parents about these changes, but I have been in direct and indirect communication with several hundred lone parents and not one of them has spoken in favour of the reforms or changes she is proposing. I have one simple question for the Minister. In this House on 18 April 2012 she promised single parent families that she would not trigger the change to be introduced in July until such time as the country had a Scandinavian-type system of child care. As she knows as well as I do that there is no Scandinavian-style child care system in place in this country, is she intending to renege on her commitment to single parents and, if so, why?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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We have introduced - this is ongoing - together with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, an after school child care service to assist lone parents taking up employment, generally on a part-time basis. This helps those who are employed, as well as those moving from the one-parent family payment to another. The service is available to children of primary school age and offers parents subsidised after school child care for 52 weeks, at a cost of €15 per week per child. This is in addition to other supports available.

I wish to speak specifically about lone parents who are in a period of change. I know what the Deputy's argument is. He wants to see lone parents staying on social welfare payments for 18 years or more-----

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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I do not. I asked a specific question. Is the Minister going to break her promise - yes or no?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I have looked at what has happened in other countries. Once a child reaches seven years of age - normally such a child would be in first class in primary school - we will create a transitional arrangement. The money involved for lone parents, many of whom are full-time, stay at home parents, does not change, but they are given an opportunity to become involved in education and training and, ultimately, find employment.

Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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It is working lone parents whom the Minister is hurting most, the very ones she says she wants to incentivise. Is she telling the House that the child care provisions to which she has referred constitute a Scandinavian-type child care system? If not, she is breaking the promise she made to the House on 18 April 2012.

Last evening the Minister of State at the Department of Social Protection told the House that discussions were ongoing between his Department and the Department of Education and Skills on lone parents who had accessed or wanted to access the education system and that these discussions might result in some changes to the proposals which had been made. I ask the Minister to confirm that this is the case because there are many very worried people, not just those who want to access the education system but also lone parents already in the system who are worried that the proposed changes will force them to withdraw from the education system.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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First, we are building a child care system. We are expanding and investing in it. The after-school child care service is an important addition. As the Deputy is probably aware, discussions are ongoing to determine if, as happens in many schools, school buildings can be used later in the afternoon as a location for after-school services. Some schools already run such services which are popular with parents. There are other schools, however, which do not permit them. If we can make progress in this area, it would lead to a significant expansion above and beyond the after-school child care service to which I referred. I can confirm that discussions with the Department of Education and Skills and Student Universal Support Ireland on grant applications and qualifications are ongoing.