Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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806. To ask the Minister for Social Protection when the report by a person (details supplied) regarding lone parent households and commissioned by his Department will be released; the date the report was first commissioned and submitted to his Department by the author; the reasons for the delay in releasing the report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26107/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The report to which the Deputy refers was commissioned at the request of my Department through the Irish Research Council (IRC) in 2014. The theme, suggested by my Department, was; how best to engage and support lone parents from an activation perspective. Following the IRC tender process a proposal put forward by Dr Michelle Millar of NUI Galway was chosen by the IRC. The topic of Dr. Millar’s research is “Lone Parents and Activation, What Works and Why: A Review of the International Evidence in the Irish Context”.

This is independent research commissioned via the IRC and so my Department has no ownership over the research. The research is owned by Dr. Millar and it is her decision as to when it will be published. Our most recent correspondence with Dr. Millar indicates that she intends publishing the report in the Autumn.