Joe Callanan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I congratulate the Minister on a very good social welfare Bill. It is what we would expect from a caring Galway man.

The social welfare budget this year is more than €12 billion, the largest spending allocation of any Department. It means that for every €3 that will be spent by the Government in 2005, €1 will go to social welfare entitlements, benefits and supports. Almost 1.5 million people, including dependants, will benefit from these payments. Two out of every five people in the State receive vital welfare supports in one way or another.

I welcome the increase in old age pensions and in all social welfare payments, which have increased considerably. The increase in child benefit from 1 April of €10 per month for the first and second child and an increase of €12 per month for three or more children is very welcome. An estimated 520,000 families with more than a million children will benefit from these increases. In the area of carers, which I feel very strongly about, everyone would like to see the means test abolished. This may be possible in the future. The Minister has done a great deal for carers, especially by increasing the income disregard to €270 for a single person and €540 for a couple. A few years ago, due to a very small income disregard, very few carers qualified. That has now changed. A couple with two children on an income of €30,700 can now qualify for the maximum carer's allowance. Accordingly, many carers can now qualify.

I welcome the increase to €1,000 in the respite care grant. This payment will be extended to all carers who provide full-time care and who are not employed for more than ten hours per week or receiving other social welfare benefits. It is estimated that an additional 9,200 full-time carers will receive this respite grant, giving carers some acknowledgment of the great work they are doing. The Oireachtas committee on social and family affairs recommended that widows and widowers who are carers should get half-rate carer's allowance payments on top of their widow's or widower's pension. It felt that widows and widowers who are also carers are getting a bad deal as they do not qualify for carer's allowance because they are not allowed two social welfare payments. I ask the Minister to consider this situation and see what he can do for these carers. It seems unfair, if one has one carer with two children and an income of €30,700 qualifying while next door one could have a widow with two children caring on a widow's pension alone because of not qualifying for the carer's grant.

There should be more funding to allow people to be kept in their own homes for as long as possible. Home-based subvention should be paid. This would give people the choice of remaining in their own homes for as long as possible. Currently, subvention is paid only if one enters a nursing home. I have nothing against nursing homes but people should have the choice.

I also welcome the capital disregard for the means test. This disregard will be increased from €12,694 to €20,000, an increase of €7,300. This will mean that an old age pensioner with no other income can have capital of €28,000 and qualify for full pension. These figures are doubled in the case of a pensioner couple. This will also mean that pensioners who have SSIA accounts will not be affected either. The whole capital disregard for means test allowance allows people to put aside a sizeable amount of money for their future without affecting their pensions.

Though it is not in the Minister's brief, I also welcome the rural social scheme implemented by the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Ó Cuív. That is a very good scheme that helps farmers on low incomes.

Regarding the lone parent allowance, some such parents who go into employment and rise above a certain rate of pay have their allowance cut off completely. This should be done on a sliding scale as it is unfair to cut people off completely when they have just over the income limit allowed.

I welcome this social welfare Bill. I always believed a government that looks after its elderly and its less well off people on social welfare is doing a very good job, which would be acknowledged at any election time. I thank the Minister for a job well done.

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