Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 November 2006
107 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he has received the pre-Budget submission from the national one parent family organisation, One Family; his response to the ten steps to equality for all families set out in the submission; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37597/06]
View answerI have recently received the Pre-Budget submission from One Family, and also had a presentation at the recent Pre-Budget Forum.
Of the ten areas of concern, entitled "steps to equality for all families" which are set out in the submission, a number, including the issues of adequate incomes for one-parent families, adequate supports for employment and the issue of poverty traps deterring a move off social welfare dependency were covered in the Government discussion paper, "Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents" which I launched in March this year.
That paper put forward proposals for reform of the income support system for all parents on a low income. It also put forward proposals for the expanded availability and range of education and training opportunities for lone parents, the extension of the National Employment Action Plan to focus on lone parents, focused provision of childcare, improved information services for lone parents and the introduction of a new social assistance payment for low income families with young children.
Long-term welfare dependency is not in the best interests of parents, their children or society in general. The proposed new social assistance payment would have the long term aim of assisting lone parents and parents on low incomes to achieve financial independence through supporting them to enter employment — for it is employment that offers the best route out of poverty.
Any proposed new payment cannot be introduced without co-ordinated supports and services being put in place by other Departments and Agencies. This is why the Government has instructed the Senior Officials Group on Social Inclusion to draw up an implementation plan to progress the non-income recommendations in tandem with the development of the legislation required in my Department to introduce a new payment scheme.
Work on the development of this implementation plan is underway. Issues including access to childcare support, education, training and activation measures are being actively considered by the relevant Departments and Agencies.
As soon as I am convinced that we have reached conclusions that are equitable, with a fully workable implementation strategy, it is my intention to bring forward proposals for legislation.
In the meantime, my officials continue to be in contact with the lone parents' representative groups, whose ongoing support I am grateful for and whose views continue to feed in to the development of the proposals. The proposals in the Pre-Budget submission are being considered in a budgetary context.
