John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

50. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the report to identify the barriers to accessing higher education for lone parents and examine measures to increase participation will be published (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35150/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Programme for Government contains a commitment to commission an independent examination to identify the supports and barriers to accessing higher education for lone parents, and examine measures to increase participation.

In line with this commitment, my Department engaged a multi-disciplinary team in NUI Maynooth to undertake the independent review.

The review is being overseen by a steering committee comprising officials from my Department and from the Departments of Social Protection and Children and Youth Affairs, as well as the Higher Education Authority.

The review will examine existing data and describe the supports that are currently available for lone parents with a view to identifying the specific challenges faced by lone parents in accessing higher education.  The intention is to identify measures and best practice that will address those challenges in the future.

The review is currently being finalised. This is a complex policy area that involves three Government Departments. Given the complexity of the issues involved, it is expected that the review will be completed before the end of the year. The publication date will be considered after the completed review has been made available to my Department.

However, the review was sufficiently progressed to inform policy discussions between the relevant Departments in advance of Budget 2017.

In this context, I secured additional funding in Budget 2017 to support more lone parents to participate in higher education. This new funding will be used to respond to the recommendations contained in the review.

This is in addition to the more than €400 million in student supports that are being made available by my Department in the 2016/17 academic year, and which will support more than 80,000 students to participate in higher education.

Further details on the programmes which the extra funding in Budget 2017 will support will be announced shortly.

The additional funding I received for lone parents in Budget 2017 will be complemented by measures announced by my colleague, the Minister for Social Protection, to assist lone parents to return to education. These measures include the reintroduction of the €500 annual cost of Education allowance.

The Minister for Children & Youth Affairs also is introducing a programme of affordable childcare which will be of significant help to lone parents who are using childcare.