Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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538. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the rate of severe material deprivation for lone parents here; the way in which this compares to the EU average; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31140/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The latest Eurostat European Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data show that the severe material deprivation rate for lone parent households was 23.2% in Ireland in 2016. The Irish rate compares to the EU average of 15.7% in 2016 (see Table 1).

The full impact of the recovery is not reflected in these figures, which relate to 2016. Macro-economic and labour market indicators have shown continued economic and employment growth since then. Unemployment has fallen from 6.8% in mid-2017 to 5.1% now. The number of people in receipt of working-age income and employment supports has also continued to fall. Perhaps most importantly in the current context, the proportion of lone parents who are working rose from 45.4% in 2015 to 51.6% in 2017, and appears to be still rising with the continuing improvement in the labour market.

With the improvement in the fiscal situation, the Government was in a position to introduce a range of welfare increases from 2016 onwards. This includes a package of measures to support lone parents, encouraging them into the workplace and into education and helping to reduce their childcare costs. In Budget 2018 all lone parents on the one-parent family payment, the jobseeker’s transitional payment and jobseeker’s allowance benefitted from the €5 increase in the weekly rates of payment which were introduced in March. In addition, the income disregards for the one-parent family payment and the jobseeker’s transitional payment increased by €20 from March, from €110 to €130 per week, reversing in part previous reductions, to encourage one parent families to stay in, and return to, work. The Department of Social Protection’s social impact assessment of Budget 2018 showed that average household incomes increased by 1.1%. Non-earning lone parents benefitted with gains of 2.5%. Working lone parents also experienced above average gains at almost 1.4%.

The improvement in the economy, together with the welfare measures referred to, are likely to have supported a further reduction in severe material deprivation in the period since 2016. This improvement is expected to continue with further rises in incomes and living standards.