Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yes.

On page 4, the total expenditure on the 2015 review is €19.378 billion, which is a decrease of €226 million, as Deputy Ó Snodaigh has pointed out. One has to understand the people underlying the statistics. I will comment on another point raised by Deputy Ó Snodaigh. When the country went into meltdown, 330,000 jobs were lost and many of those people ended up in the Department of Social Protection, including self-employed people. As one of the Mangan reports showed, when I became Minister I changed the system to current year accounts. For tax purposes accounts were in arrears and, before I became Minister, one had to get all of one's accounts and one ended up in a cul-de-sac where, until one had up-to-date accounts, a presentation could not be made because the offices would ask for tax returns and one might not have made them yet. All of that has been brought on to a current accounting basis. If a fisherman or farmer has had a drastic disimprovement in financial circumstances they can go into a social welfare office and they can bring that to the attention of the social welfare staff. In the case of a farmer or fisherman, or the example that Deputy Ó Snodaigh gave of the lady with partial work on a daily basis, if they have other income or if other people in the house, such as a spouse has significant other income, it will be subject to a means test. If they meet the means test, they will be able to get a social welfare payment. The Mangan report showed that nine out of ten people who so applied and who were subject to a means test did get significant help.