Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I do not propose to accept this amendment but I share Senator McFadden's views on the need to ensure we support lone parents. Senators will be aware that the Government published a discussion document on supporting lone parents and we have been working very actively on it in the past few months to try to bring new proposals to a conclusion. These proposals not only deal with return to work but also issues of payment, cohabitation, back to education and child care, as there are many issues to do with supporting lone parents.

In recent years significant changes have been made in the area of income disregards and working hours. I recently met a group of lone parents and one woman told me she dreads getting a routine increase in her pay every January because it impacts on her book and people depend on the book.

We are also very aware that despite the significant decrease in poverty levels, according to last year's figures and in the Silke report and the decrease in consistent poverty, unfortunately it is still the child of a lone parent who is four times more likely to be in poverty. There is a need to address this issue. We have carried out two localised studies in Coolock and Kilkenny, using a focus group and talking to other Departments, because the availability of child care is a very significant issue.

We are also examining methods in other countries. Many countries cease paying a one-parent family allowance when the child is six months, for example, in the case of the United States, and in places such as Finland, Sweden, Canada and New Zealand, it is three, four, five or six years. The United Kingdom is reducing the age to which payment is made to ten years. In Ireland as long as the child is in full-time education payment is made up to the age of 22. There is, therefore, no incentive for any lone parent to return to education. The intention is to start working very early with the lone parent, from the time she makes her claim, to help her prepare for the day when she will not be a full-time carer of her child but will have had access to education and training. We have appointed new facilitators and more will be appointed early next year to start work with these lone parents. There is a big demand for facilitators who will help bring people back into education. It is my intention to publish the long-term proposals for lone parents in the spring and for that reason I will not accept the amendment.