Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 118: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her views on the recent report on One Family's New Futures Project Increasing Labour Market Outcomes for Lone Parents; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18711/08]

Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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Question 132: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her views on the recently launched One Family Strategy 2007 to 2009; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18712/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 118 and 132 together.

The Department has recently received the One Family Strategy 2007 to 2009, and also the final report of their New Futures Project and found them both very worthwhile and informative. The Strategy document outlines the progress One Family aims to achieve by 2009 across the areas of client services, legal and policy change and attitudinal change.

Overall, One Family aims to continue to work to change attitudes towards lone parents. This is something that I am very much in favour of. Society and attitudes in Ireland have changed radically in the last 25- 30 years, alongside dramatic changes that have taken place in family formation. There is, however, still room for improvement in acceptance of all forms of family diversity, with the well-being of children being the key focus.

The New Futures project was developed by One Family as a continuation of their successful Moving On programme. New Futures aimed to support lone parents as they progressed from being dependent on welfare to supporting themselves independently. The project brought together the complementary expertise of front line service providers to develop a model of service provision to support lone parents who have been excluded from the labour market to progressing into sustainable employment. This initiative is in line with the Government's view that it is only through education, training and improved employment prospects that the risk of poverty and social exclusion of lone parents can be radically reduced.

In this regard the new proposals for supporting lone parents that both the Senior Officials Group on Social Inclusion and my Department are developing, are progressing. The testing phase of the non-income aspect of the proposals has ended and the outcome of the process is currently being considered. This will inform the further development of the proposals, which I hope to bring to the Cabinet Committee on Social Inclusion in the coming months.