Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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32. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if, further to the finding of the Millar report, he will reverse lone parent allowance cuts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28755/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I wish to acknowledge the amount of time and effort Dr Millar and her team undertook in completing this study. My Department values social policy research and the contribution it makes in assisting the Department in terms of informing policy across its broad remit.

The report will be helpful to my Department to see what can be learned from other countries about the active inclusion approach and where best practice lies. The report does not purport to be an analysis of the lone parent reforms.

The qualitative interviews in the report will add to our knowledge but the sample size is small and the period of implementation of the reforms is very short and there have already been adjustments since they were introduced. It is too soon to draw definitive conclusions about the outcome of these reforms.

However, the overall direction remains the activation of lone parents, and I believe that this report supports this principle also. Data shows that being at work reduces consistent poverty among lone parent families; those at work have consistent poverty rates of 9.6% compared to 35.5% for those not at work. Therefore the key to ensuring lone parents are lifted out of poverty is to aim to support lone parents into employment.

The report highlights the critical nature of the Case Officer role within my Department and the importance of a package of supports including pre-employment, employment, financial and childcare.

It is too early to determine the full impact of the reforms. Initial indicative data from the latest Quarterly National Household Survey shows that there has been a significant increase in the percentage of lone parents in employment in the year since the end of June 2016. This increase relates to all lone parents in the State and reflects the increase in economic and employment growth generally. The magnitude of the increase for lone parents specifically, many of whom would have been affected last July by the reforms, is clearly significant and cannot be dismissed.