Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this discussion on lone parents and note that one in four families with children in Ireland is a lone-parent family, including my own, I might add. I know what it is like to try to raise children on one's own. Lone parents need and are entitled to every possible support. The vast majority of lone parents whom I deal with continually do an excellent job in child rearing, often in very difficult circumstances.

I got an e-mail today from somebody who was giving out to me, anticipating that I was going to vote for marriage equality, which I am, and saying that the family with the father and the mother is the best family in the world, there is no family that comes near it and it is the one to go for. I know most two-parent families with the father and the mother are great families but a lot happened in dark Ireland in the 1950s and around that time in some of these supposedly wonderful families.

My youngest daughter was in "Juno and the Paycock" the other night, where she was playing Mrs. Tancred. In the last lines of that play, the wee girl asks her mother, Juno, what the child will do without a dad. Juno replies, "It'll have what's far better- it'll have two mothers". That might be a good thing for the coming referendum.

We recognise that despite significant levels of investment, including an estimated €607 million in 2015, the one-parent family scheme has not been successful in preventing lone parents from being significantly more at risk of poverty than the population as a whole. Support for lone parents needs to be updated in order to provide greater levels of opportunity for them and their children. Things are not perfect but nothing can be taken in isolation. The shocking economic circumstances of recent years have meant that while social transfers were maintained at 2007 levels, despite adjustments in other areas, it was not possible to add as much value as wished. Now the situation is improving, with the efforts of the Government and the people, and more jobs are being created, things are coming back on the right track and we can begin to look forward.

I hear talk of a second free child care year, which I would welcome very much. The Government has taken several steps to ease the transition of affected lone parents from one-parent family payment, including the introduction of the jobseeker's allowance transitional payment, creating for the first time the opportunity for lone parents to have access to a case officer on a one-to-one basis to agree their own personal development plan. The personal development plans for children in schools have had a major and positive effect on the education of children. They have stopped them from being isolated in the classroom and have given them a focus and a way forward.

My daughter is not working in Dunnes Stores but she is working in Mace and she is very happy with her 20 to 25 hours. She gets enough to do her. If she handed up a wee bit more, I would be even happier. I keep telling her to hand it all up and she will get it all back, like my mother used to tell me, but it does not work these days.

We have to look at new ways in education. The Acting Chairman knows one of the CEOs of the new education and training boards, Mr. Martin O'Brien, who is amazing at coming forward with flexible forms of education. I am sure that is the same in most of the ETBs.

I recognise the great work the Government is doing and has done in difficult circumstances and the moves forward we have made. There is work to be done and that work should focus on enhancing not just the economic status but also the self-esteem of lone parents, particularly young lone parents. I quite often deal with young lone parents in regard to housing and other issues. We must value them as people and give them a way forward. I urge the Minister and the Government to continue to enhance their work in that regard.