Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I think more than 3.5 million people at any one time are benefiting from social welfare. That includes parents, and their offspring benefit if they are under 18. That is a huge number of citizens interacting with the social welfare system. When out canvassing you will hear people say, "I never benefited from social welfare". I say, "Do you have a child?", and they say, "Yes". Well, they did benefit then. I then say, "Do you hope to reach the age of 66?" That is the most expensive benefit of all, and of course they will benefit from it because the type of people who say that are inevitably working.

Social welfare is hugely important, and over the years there has been a lot of focus on the finance Bill. However, this Bill is equally important every year, and equally affects people's lives. I am very grateful to the Minister for coming into the committee. It used to be a case of just bursting through the legislation. It is better that we did it this way, with a proper debate. We can analyse the issues and we can also tee things up for the future. I want to express my gratitude to the Minister for coming in here, and her willingness to come in to the committee rather than doing it in a hurry in a plenary session, probably with a guillotine in the Dáil.