Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 259: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the progress which has been made at the National Consultative Forum he convened to discuss proposals for supporting lone parents; and when the forum is likely to report. [17260/06]

Ivor Callely (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 260: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the groups and or persons which have made presentations or submissions to the National Consultative Forum convened to discuss proposals for supporting lone parents. [17261/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 259 and 260 together.

The Government acknowledges that the risk of poverty, especially child poverty, tends to be higher among one parent families, larger families and those faced by long-term unemployment, due mainly to the direct costs of rearing children, including child care costs, and the opportunity costs related to the reduced earning capacity of parents, arising from their care responsibilities. This applies particularly to one parent families as the lone parent has to be the main breadwinner and carer at the same time. One of the key tasks in the 'Ending Child Poverty' initiative under Sustaining Progress is to address obstacles to employment for lone parents.

The Senior Officials Group on Social Inclusion was mandated late in 2004 to examine this issue and report back to the Cabinet Committee on Social Inclusion with specific proposals. A sub-group of the Senior Officials Group examined obstacles to employment for lone parent families, with particular emphasis on income supports, employment, education, childcare and support programmes and information.

A working group established in my Department reviewed the income support arrangements for lone parents, looking at issues including the contingency basis of the one parent family payment, cohabitation and the fact that the payment can act as a disincentive to the formation of partnerships and discourage joint parenting. As a result of this process, which included consultation with the social partners, I recently launched a major Government discussion paper, 'Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents' which addresses the social exclusion and risk of poverty faced by many such families and their children.

The report puts forward radical proposals for reform of the income support system for all parents on a low income. The report proposes the expanded availability and range of education and training opportunities for lone parents, the extension of the National Employment Action Plan to focus on lone parents, focused provision of childcare, improved information services for lone parents and the introduction of a new Parental Allowance for low income families with young children.

The Government has asked the Senior Officials Group on Social Inclusion to draw up an implementation plan to progress the non-income recommendations of the discussion paper, including those related to childcare, education, training and activation measures and work on this has already commenced in consultation with the Departments and agencies concerned.

As a follow-up to the publication of the discussion paper, I hosted a National Consultative Forum on 27th April 2006. The Forum was attended by social partners, representatives of organisations dealing with lone parents and the unemployed, representatives of Government departments and State agencies who will be responsible for the implementation of the proposals in the discussion paper and members of the Oireachtas. At the Forum, I heard the views of each organisation on the proposals including their comments on the proposed parental allowance and invited them to make formal written submissions setting out those views. The organisations represented at the forum were IBEC, ICTU, CORI, St. Vincent De Paul, One Family, OPEN, Doras Buí, National Women's Council, Treoir, Teen Parent Support Programme, Parental Equality and AMEN. The Observers were the Senior Officials Group on Social Inclusion, FÁS, Combat Poverty, Crisis Pregnancy Agency, Family Support Agency, NESF and NESC.