5.1 Policy Context Overview

There are myriad policies that seek to affect and improve topics that are related to

this broad domain; therefore, the following discussion is focused on a smaller number

of flagship policies and initiatives.

The issue of housing has been a policy priority for a number of years, as reflected in

the Housing for All – a New Housing Plan for Ireland government plan to 2030. The

policy seeks to implement a wide range of strategies to enable access to good quality

homes using four pathways: supporting home ownership and increasing affordability;

eradicating homelessness, increasing social housing delivery and supporting social

inclusion; increasing new housing supply; and addressing vacancy and efficient use of

existing stock (Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, 2021).

In other initiatives, the National Broadband for Ireland (NBI) Plan is the Irish

government’s initiative to deliver high speed broadband services to all premises in

Ireland,31 as research has shown that there is a substantial discrepancy in broadband

coverage between urban and rural areas (Dempsey & Hoy, 2025). According to the

NBI website, the new network will use a combination of State subsidy and

commercial investment and the plan states that it “will radically change the

broadband landscape across the country to ensure that every farm, business and

home has access to high-speed broadband, no matter where they are located.”

Improving access to high quality internet services is key to the family context,

especially in terms of flexible or hybrid arrangements for parents to work from home.

The First 5 national strategy, published in 2019, has the objective that “Families and

communities will be supported to provide children with the necessary material and

practical resources to encourage positive development in the early years.” (p. 32).

This can be seen across a wide range of social welfare policies such as Increases for

Qualified Children, the Working Family Payment (a weekly tax-free payment available

to employees with children and net average weekly family income below a certain

31https://nbi.ie/the-national-broadband-plan/

amount for family size), the One Parent Family Payment, and several other policies.32

A recent development relevant to one-parent families saw a major reform to the child

maintenance system; these payments are no longer means tested which saw over

16,000 lone parents benefit from this reform (Department of Social Protection,

2024). As previously mentioned in Chapter 1, the number of people working from

home increased 173% between 2016 and 2022. Initially driven by COVID-19

restrictions, many employers have subsequently offered more remote or blended-

working arrangements even after the lifting of restrictions. Additionally, as mentioned

in Chapter 4, under the First 5 strategy there has been the enactment of a new

paternity leave policy of 2 weeks paid leave and an extension to the amount of leave

given under parent’s leave to 9 weeks in the child’s first 2 years. The Parental Leave

(Amendment) Act 2019 saw the parental leave entitlement, to be taken prior to the

child turning 12, extended from 18 weeks unpaid to 26 weeks unpaid.33

Additionally, the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-25 seeks “to reduce the national

consistent poverty rate to 2% or less of the population and to make Ireland one of

the most socially inclusive States in the EU” (Department of Social Protection, 2020,

p. 15). Of its seven high-level goals, one specifically focusses on supporting families

and reducing child poverty, while also having an interest in supporting lone parents

who may be disadvantaged due to only working part-time. Reducing child poverty is

also a ‘spotlight’ issue in the new Young Ireland policy framework, including the

establishment of a specific office within the Department of the Taoiseach.

5.2 Findings from Growing Up in Ireland Cohort 08 at age 3 years34