Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her presentation. I was relieved the word "fraud" did not feature heavily in it. Often when we talk about social protection budgets, the media seem to be obsessed with the word" fraud".

The Minister concentrated more on the importance of the social protection budget to the local economy, which I would like to emphasise. She mentioned the basic rate and how important it was in tackling poverty. Does she agree that when one maintains the basic rate of social welfare, it acts as a basic underlayer for the economy, which benefits everybody because everybody's wage rate in the economy is based on the lowest level? When one maintains the lowest level in the social welfare system, everybody in the economy benefits.

I think people are sometimes not aware of this.

I wish to ask a final question and do not want to take up too much more time. The issue of unemployment and the payment of unemployment assistance from the social welfare budget affect the community as well as the individual. There are multi-layered problems in the geographical areas that have been hardest hit by the economic downturn. Some communities are disproportionately dependent on social welfare. They are disproportionately affected by reductions in city council budgets because they depend so much on local authority services. They are also disproportionately affected by changes in youth service provision. Has the Department made allowances for this? In the context of the 2014 budget, is the Department thinking about how both the community and the individual are affected by the knock-on effects of reductions in payments?

I thank the Minister for her presentation.