Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 27 Feb 2001

Vol. 531 No. 3

Written Answers. - Commission on the Family.

Breeda Moynihan-Cronin

Ceist:

54 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of recommendations arising from the report by the Commission on the Family which have been implemented to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5729/01]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern):

The final report of the Commission on the Family, Strengthening Families for Life, was published by the Government in July 1998. It contains a comprehensive analysis of the issues affecting families in Ireland and wide-ranging recommendations across several policy areas. Some 44 recommendations are made by the commission by way of making a start. The Government is committed to adopting a "families first" approach by putting the family at the centre of all its policies. The family affairs unit established in my Department has a specific function to pursue the findings in the commission's report following its consideration by the Government.

Government priorities for the development of family policy and services have brought about significant progress in all the key areas highlighted by the Commission on the Family. In my Department, considerable extra resources amounting to over £17 million a year have been provided specifically for the further development of family services. Major improvements include the following. A record £4.81 million has been provided this year for voluntary organisations providing marriage and child counselling services and bereavement counselling and support services. This is more than five times the amount provided in 1997. A nation-wide family mediation service, now available in 11 centres, is in place as promised in the Action Programme for the Millennium. Preparations for the establishment of the service on a statutory basis are under way in my Department. Some 70 centres are in receipt of funding or have approval in principle to join the family and community services resource centre programme for which some £4 million has been allocated this year. The target is 100 centres over the coming years. I have introduced a families research programme to help shape the development of family policy and services in the future. Some 13 research projects to date have been initiated under the programme. A design brief for a national longitudinal study of children in Ireland has been commissioned by my Department jointly with the Department of Health and Children. It is expected that this study will be completed for the consideration of Government by mid-2001.

Family services projects providing high quality information about the range of supports available to families from State agencies and the community and voluntary sector with a particular emphasis on services available locally are being piloted in three local offices of my Department – Cork, Waterford and Finglas. The Government has allocated £12 million in the National Development Plan for the progressive expansion of the successful elements of the pilot over the period 2000-06.

Government priorities to radically improve provision for pensioners, carers and dependent spouses and children in households on low incomes address areas highlighted by the commission in its report. The £850 million budget package for social welfare increases this year, which is more than double the increase for last year, is an innovative package to improve the position of those who are most vulnerable in society.

Major improvements in child benefit to take effect from June 2001 at a full year cost of £329 million and a further commitment to bring total additional investment in child benefit to almost £1 billion a year by 2003 are evidence of the Government's determination to improve child income support and support the choices parents are making in providing care for their children. Child benefit was seen by the commission as an important instrument to address these matters for families.

My colleagues in Government are progressing a number of significant pro-families policy initiatives in their own areas of responsibility. These include the extension of maternity and adoptive leave; the publication of the national children's strategy in November 2000 and the work under way on the establishment of a national children's office and an ombudsman for children; new initiatives under way in relation to early education, investment in primary level schools and measures to improve provision in special education and to tackle educational disadvantage; major investment in child care provision for which a further £40 million has recently been allocated by the Government in addition to the £250 million provided in the national development plan; the promotion of family friendly policies and practices at the level of the enterprise is being progressed under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness in which the Government and social partners are committed to support family life, offer choices for families and equal opportunities for both men and women to play an active caring role in families. The Government is committed to continued progress on these important measures to assist families and to support family life.

Question No. 55 answered with Question No. 33.