Policy Submissions

One Family concentrates on making a number of key submissions each year. Please see below for the most recent, in PDF format.

Pre-Budget Submission – Budget 2013 One Family Pre-budget Submission 2013

Pre-Budget Submission – Budget 2012 One Family pre-budget 2012 submission

Pre-Budget Submission – Budget 2011 One Family pre-budget 2011 submission

Pre-Budget Submission – Budget 2010 One Family pre-budget 2010 submission

Pre-Budget Submission – Budget 2009 One Family pre-budget 2009 submission

Pre-Budget Submission – Budget 2008 One Family pre-budget 2008 submission

Pre-Budget Submission – Budget 2007 One Family pre-budget 2007 submission

One Family’s Election Manifesto 2011 – Achieving Equality and Social Inclusion among 0ne-Parent Families One Family calls on all political parties when in government to back their commitments to protecting the most vulnerable in Irish society.

One Family launches report on the need for Child Contact Centres in Ireland, Monday 12 April 2010 Minister for Children Barry Andrews, TD launched the report followed by a seminar chaired by The Hon. Mr Justice Henry Abbott.

One Family’s Submission to the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children May 2008
In general One Family supports the submissions to the joint committee made by the Ombudsman for Children and by the Children’s Rights Alliance.

Government Discussion Document on Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents
Overall, One Family believes that there is an urgent need to develop and implement a coherent policy framework for one-parent families that reflects the realities of their lives and those of their children

Domestic Partnerships
One Family works with all types of one-parent families as well as with new and blended families. Much of our work revolves around issues related to the formation and ending of family relationships. In all cases our primary concern is the impact of such situations on the child, on ensuring the availability of adequate supports for children and on supporting legal frameworks that overtly address the best interests of the child.
We therefore focus our recommendations to the Working Group with this priority in mind.

Social Partnership Discussions
One Family welcomes this opportunity to submit our proposals to the social partnership process. Given the importance of the current social partnership discussions in terms of framing economic and social policy in Ireland over the next possibly ten year period, One Family is keen to ensure that the issues affecting our clients, one-parent families, are adequately addressed in the discussions and that the  current proposals for changing state supports for lone parents are clearly linked in with other major strategic developments and related funding sources.

National Anti-Poverty Strategy 2006–2008
One Family welcomes the opportunity to make this submission to the Office for Social Inclusion on the preparation of Ireland’s National Anti-Poverty Strategy 2006–2008. The submission is made in the  context that solo parents are increasingly disadvantaged as a group in Ireland in terms of poverty levels,
social welfare dependency and access to services that help address these issues.

Submission to the review of provisions relating to family in the Constitution
Submission to the All Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution
The changing nature of family life in Ireland
Modern family life in Ireland is remarkably different now compared with the period in which our Constitution was first developed.  With declining marriage and birth rates, higher rates of extra marital cohabitation and birth and a growing diversification of the structure of families, the typical Irish family is no longer typical.
APOCC-submission-two parts-PDF

Submission in relation to consultation on discussion paper on the rights and duties of cohabitees
One Family broadly welcomes the treatment of the issue of non-marital relationships by the Law Reform
Commission on this occasion.  Particularly given that 2004 marks the 10th anniversary of the UN International Year of the Family, it is imperative that current and persistent barriers to the full equality and equal status of all families and family types, in legal, policy and service provision arenas be addressed.