Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 23: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the level of additional funding or number of additional affordable places she considers that equates with a credible and bankable commitment on the delivery of relevant childcare precipitating her willingness to implement the reduction of the one parent family payment cut off age to seven. [20594/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The one-parent family payment (OFP) has played an important role in providing income support to lone parents. Total expenditure on this scheme will be some €1.06 billion this year. Changes have been made to the payment since its introduction in 1991, reflecting the changes taking place in society, the labour market and the expectations and realities of parents' lives, and particularly of mothers, in terms of work and care. These reforms continue that change. They recognise parental choice with regard to the care of young children, while, at the same time, having an expectation that parents will not remain outside of the workforce indefinitely. They aim to provide the necessary supports to lone parents to participate in education and training, to develop their skills, and to enter or move in the labour market and, ultimately, to achieve financial independence. The Social Welfare and Pensions Bill, 2012, introduces changes to the structure of the payment and the age of the youngest child at which the payment ceases. These changes are being brought in over time. I have acknowledged that reforming the OFP will require a whole of Government response. I am engaging with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Minister for Education and Skills to have a co-ordinated, cross-departmental approach to ensuring that the required level of services are in place to support lone parents as their youngest child reaches the relevant age thresholds.

Discussions have already taken place at official level between officials from my Department and from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs with regard to the development of a policy framework around after-school care, and, in the short-term, the assessment of the extent of the current provision of such care, the costs of such care to parents, and the demand for such services from lone parents.