21st March 2026
To mark International Single Parents Day, One Family have launched their #GetItRight campaign, calling for urgent government action on family law, child poverty, family homelessness and access to education for one-parent families across Ireland.
If Government gets services, policies and legislation right for one-parent families, then they will be right for all families in Ireland.
We’re calling on government to:
Invest in out-of-court supports: Not only would this address lengthy court waiting times, but it would also provide best outcomes for children. Families need support, parenting courses, mediation and counselling to avoid adversarial, traumatic court cases. This should include funding for specialised services that support families experiencing high levels of conflict or domestic violence, such as One Family’s Separating Well for Children service, and therapeutic services for children.
Target Child Poverty: Most poor children in Ireland live in one-parent families and lone parents experience high levels of in-work poverty. If the government wants to reduce child poverty, they can do this by targeting one-parent families. An efficient way of doing this is by increasing the amount of income excluded for lone parents who receive One Parent Family Payment or Jobseekers Transitional Payment to €222.75 per week; the equivalent of 16 working hours at National Minimum Wage.
Stop Family Homelessness: Government cannot accept monthly increases in child and family homelessness as normal. They need to immediately fund homelessness prevention, including the tenant-in-situ scheme, and increase housing assistance payments in line with local market rents. These payments were last increased in 2022 and the gap between the payment and rent that parents are forced to bridge is fuelling poverty, deprivation and increasing family homelessness.
Improve Access to Education: Move from a “work-activation” government approach to lone parents on social welfare to an evidence-based “education-first” one. This would address high levels of in-work poverty and create long-term savings for government, along with financial security for families.
Karen Kiernan, CEO of One Family said:
“We have achieved huge, positive changes for one-parent families in Ireland since our organisation was founded 54 years ago and that is to be welcomed and acknowledged. But we’ve moved from putting lone parents in institutions to placing them in systems which harm them. This includes a family law system which doesn’t deliver a child-centred approach, a housing crisis which has created epidemic levels of family homelessness in one-parent families and a “work-activation” approach to lone parents and employment, which fuels high levels of in-work poverty.
Throughout 2026, our #GetItRight campaign will highlight these issues and our solutions to solving them. These are fixable issues, but we need action from our government and commitment to positive change. We look forward to political engagement on these critical issues for one-parent families.”
You can watch the campaign video on One Family’s website now.
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For more information, please contact Vicky Masterson, One Family Communications Manager on 083 447 0645 / vmasterson@onefamily.ie
Notes to Editor:
- One Family is Ireland’s organisation for people parenting alone, sharing parenting, and separating. We have been working with one-parent families for over 50 years. We provide a range of direct services to parents and children, along with campaigning and advocating for legislative and social change to deliver true equality for all families. Services include direct family support, parenting courses, New Futures employability programme, AskOneFamily helpline and counselling for those experiencing an unplanned or crisis pregnancy. You can learn more about One Family at www.onefamily.ie