Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 570: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the polices he will put in place in relation to improving conditions for lone parents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19769/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The Government discussion paper, "Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents," put forward proposals for 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 social assistance payment for low income families with young children. The paper also proposed the abolition of the cohabitation rule as a condition for receipt of the proposed social assistance payment.

One of the proposals in the report was that the upper income limit for the new social assistance payment should be set at €400 per week. In Budget 2006, the upper income limits on the one parent family payment was increased from €293 to €375 per week, moving a substantial way towards this limit. In Budget 2007, this element of the proposal was completed by increasing the upper income limit for the one parent family payment to €400 per week. In addition, the report recommended increasing the qualified child increase for recipients of the one-parent family payment. In Budget 2007 the three rates of qualified child increase, which had been maintained at the same levels for a number of years, were combined into a single rate of €22 per week in respect of over 340,000 children of welfare families.

The new social assistance payment, under development in my Department, will have the long term aim of assisting people to achieve financial independence through supporting them to enter employment — the avenue that is widely agreed to offer the best route out of poverty. Any proposed new payment can only be introduced when the necessary co-ordinated supports and services are put in place by other Departments and Agencies. The Government has instructed the Senior Officials Group on Social Inclusion to draw up an implementation plan to progress the non-income recommendations of the report in tandem with the development of the legislation required in my Department to introduce a new payment scheme. Work on the development of this implementation plan is continuing. Issues including access to childcare support, education, training and activation measures continue to be discussed with the relevant Departments and Agencies.

To further develop the process, my Department, with the co-operation of FÁS, the Office of the Minister for Children and the Department of Education and Science, are to test the proposals in both an urban (Coolock, Dublin) and rural (Kilkenny) setting. These tests, due to commence in October, will focus on identifying and resolving the practical and administrative issues that may arise in advance of the scheme being introduced. This will allow for operational and logistical co-ordination between the relevant Departments and Agencies to be considered and will facilitate the development of the new scheme.