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

I wish to thank all the members of the Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection for their work in producing the Report on the Position of Lone Parents in Ireland. I know the process involved discussions with a wide range of stakeholder groups and with officials from my Department. I appreciate the time and effort that has gone into the report. I wish to thank the Seanad for giving me the opportunity to speak in this debate.

Since taking up my role as Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, I hope I have made it clear that my priorities include children living in consistent poverty, of which there are 130,000, working families, including lone parents, and people on fixed incomes who are dependent on the social contract in Ireland. Therefore, I welcome the report by the committee on lone parents because it touches on particular issues that we all know and recognise in this area. The report and the more recent Indecon review of the changes to the lone-parent family payment have re-enforced my commitment to lone-parent families.

In budget 2018, I followed through on these priorities. A range of measures will be introduced next year that will directly benefit lone-parent families and especially their children. The committee report described the main challenges facing lone parents, which include child poverty, activation and education, child care costs, maintenance payments and the changes to the one-parent family scheme. While I do not have the time today to speak on all the recommendations, I will do my best to cover as much as possible.

The poverty rates currently experienced by lone-parent families are unacceptable. Unfortunately, this is not new; it has been ongoing for some time. There are many views as to what causes this and what might solve this situation. My view, which is supported by the Indecon report, is that broadly speaking the policy approach of encouraging and supporting women and men into work is correct. This approach has positively impacted on the lives of lone parents where they have found employment. Nonetheless, the risk of poverty is still too high for those with no or low-paid employment.

Budget 2018 will see a €5 per week increase in the rates of payment and an increase in the qualified child payment of €2 per week. 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 further support these families. However, the supports needed to end poverty do not stop or start with income support. Continuing and improving the policy supports that help lone parents into sustainable employment are critical to ending poverty. The Indecon review shows that the changes to the one-parent family payment have already resulted in increased employment among lone parents and a decrease in welfare dependency. The survey of one-parent families carried out as part of the review showed an increase in full-time employment among the survey respondents from 15% to 22%. We need to continue this progress and in particular to create supports that will help more lone parents to work and, most important, to find work that pays and improves their lives.

From March next year, I am increasing the earnings disregard of the one-parent family payment and jobseeker's transitional payment from €110 per week to €130 per week. This will allow a lone parent on OFP or JST to earn an additional €20 per week of their own money before it will affect their payments. When this is combined with the increase in the national minimum wage to €9.55 per hour this year and the rate increases, it results in an extra €19 per week in the pocket of the OFP and JST recipient with one child who is working 15 hours per week on the national minimum wage.

Lone parents working more than 19 hours per week will also gain through an increase of €10 per week in the working family payment thresholds, formerly known as the family income support, for families with between one and three children. This will result in an additional €6 per week for those families. The legislative sunset clause on the back-to-work family dividend is also being removed. It was due to end this March. This effective support will remain available to lone parents and couples who make the transition from welfare dependency to work, including those who also avail of the working family payment.

I am aware that the committee recommended higher increases to the income disregards for OFP and JST payments and to the child payment rates. As the Senators are aware, to continue the jobs-led recovery that is under way in Ireland, thankfully, the Government needed to balance the books. I am sure that in budget 2018 I have struck a fair balance between improving the welfare of lone-parent families while maintaining the relative positions of all other groups.

I wish to emphasise that an important message from the committee report, which we heard loud and clear, is that access to education is critical to improve the position for lone parents. It also highlights that the activation services provided by the case officers in my Department must tailor the supports to the specific challenges experienced by lone parents. My Department already provides a wide range of financial supports to lone parents to 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 payments who wish to participate in education can retain these payments and also avail of the SUSI grant from the Department of Education and Skills. That grant is not assessed as means by my Department. This option is not available to other jobseekers. My Department's employment services also currently provide a case-management approach to assist lone parents to avail of various opportunities within an ever-increasing and improving labour market.

For these supports to be truly effective, access to affordable child care is needed. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Katherine Zappone, has announced measures under budget 2018 to extend the free preschool scheme for an additional year to make the scheme applicable for a full two years. Senators will be aware that some people were falling between birthday dates. The Minister, Deputy Zappone, is also going to invest further in the child care affordability measures she introduced last month. Both of these measures will be of particular support to lone parents. My Department will continue to support and assist with these initiatives.

The committee report included further recommendations that I have been unable to address, but I can confirm that all of the recommendations are under consideration by my Department. My Department has reviewed all aspects of the maintenance arrangements relating to lone parents. Since April, the work for the statutory review, that is, the Indecon report, has taken priority. However, the work will now recommence and I intend that it will be completed soon. When it is completed, I will be happy to come back to have a full conversation about it.

I am confident that the budget will improve the financial situation of lone parents. I intend to continue to prioritise supports for lone parents, particularly those which incentivise work over welfare. I will also provide for the further review of the scheme. As there is a time lag before the benefits of labour market reforms appear, I anticipate that this review will take place next year and that we will have a further report at the end of 2018. I hope that will be more reflective of the working environment changes that have happened since 2016-2017. We might get a more reflective report next year.

I wish to thank the Indecon representatives publicly for the work they have done. They did an incredible block of work in an incredibly short amount of time in producing the qualitative data. I am grateful to them for that. I thank the Senators for devoting their time to discuss this important issue. I look forward to hearing what they have to say and to taking on board the views they wish to express to me.