Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Considering the spending on gas and electricity, which goes to what is broadly the same category of people, expenditure is up significantly because of the reasons outlined by Deputy O'Dea, including an increase in fuel cost that everybody has experienced. It is painful to reduce any social welfare Estimate or payment but there is a major ongoing economic crisis. We have maintained very high and strong levels of social welfare support for significant numbers of people in Ireland, and that is a reason the country has been able to come through, although with much difficulty for individuals, families and communities. It is a great economic stimulus for the Irish economy that we are spending over €20 billion this year - and broadly the same next year - on social protection. I am very conscious that this money is spent in every corner of Ireland and every town and village. There are areas which depend on public employment of various kinds and social welfare; that would often constitute the bulk of spending in a local economy.

It is important that at this time of economic difficulty we have a strong system of social protection to which taxpayers and PRSI payers contribute. We must find the maximum efficiencies and seek to make the spending as targeted as possible to the people who need it most. I am happy that we have in these very difficult times maintained social protection for so many millions of our people.

I hope we will be able to do the same next year. However, we must find savings; we have no choice about this. Owing to the bank guarantee and so forth, we are indebted. I hope we will get some relief in respect of that indebtedness, but it means we are relying on others to supply us with borrowings, to which there is conditionality attached. Obviously, we must also get more people back to work. The Deputy is a critic of JobBridge and Tús. I understand these concerns, but as well as spending, I must use as much of my budget as possible to get people back to work, serving their community or gaining experience such as through the internship programme. There has been very valuable collaboration between Springboard and the internship programme. Individuals who might have lost their jobs following the collapse of the construction sector, for example, are returning to education on various Springboard courses such as those on information technology. Having done this, there is a period of internship and I am pleased that many of them are being sought after for jobs in some of the IT companies. That is a very positive pathway back to work with the support of both the Department of Education and Skills and the Department of Social Protection.