Calls for research into lone parenthood poverty risk

RESEARCH into lone parenthood must be undertaken amid evidence single parent families are at greater risk of poverty, a senior minister said yesterday.

Social Affairs Minister Séamus Brennan said more research must be carried out to inform debates and decisions in order to ensure an adequate response to Ireland’s rapidly changing and evolving social landscape.

“I also agree completely that we need to commission quality research into the issue of lone parenthood. This is particularly relevant in the light of the number of lone parents in receipt of the One Parent Family Payment, which currently stands at over 80,000. Again, statistics have shown that families headed by lone parents are at a greater risk of poverty,” Mr Brennan said.

Mr Brennan said he was consulting with groups representing lone parents, which include people who are single, separated, divorced or widowed, to implement proposals highlighted in a Government discussion paper earlier this year.

The minister said the review of the Family Research Programme by barrister Mel Cousins had helped highlight the range of issues affecting different family types in Ireland.

“Irish society is changing quite rapidly and the result is people in the many family formations having to cope with new layers of pressures, demands and anxieties,” he said.

“It is important that we respond to these new demands by continuously updating and transforming social policies so that they are shaped to offer the support the families need at times of pressures.”

The Families Research Programme was set up in 1998 and has undertaken around 15 research projects on issues including the effects of separation on children, balancing work and family life and grand parenting in modern Ireland.

The minister said the traditional family model cannot be taken as the only point of reference with major changes and developments in family policy over the last decade.

“There are increasing numbers of couples separating and divorcing, and, as I have often said, it is important to support families through all of these times. It is particularly important to focus support on and to prioritise children,” he said.

A number of specific areas have been recommended for future research including options for building marriage and relationship stability.