Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 22 November 2018

Select Committee on Social Protection

Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2018: Committee Stage

10:00 am

Photo of John BradyJohn Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 16:

In page 14, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following:“Benchmarking of social welfare payment rates

17. The Minister shall consult with stakeholders on examining ways in which social welfare rates are increased with the aim of ensuring adequacy for all recipients and shall do so in quarter 1 of 2019.”.

This asks the Minister to engage with the key stakeholders when setting social welfare payments each year to ensure they are based on evidence and adequacy for recipients. Every year we seem to get to a point where certain rates are a political football. The approach is a fiver for all.

It does not look at how adequate the payments are and is not based on evidence. It is a political football, as we have seen over recent years. It must be evidence-based. As the Minister is aware, I have produced a Social Welfare Commission Bill 2018 which would remove the setting of rates from the Department and give them to the a social welfare commission which would oversee the whole area, engage with the key stakeholders and ensure any increases are evidence-based and are based in their adequacy for recipients. The amendment asks that the Minister meets with the key stakeholders so we can ensure that happens.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.