Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

The Minister was thrown into his Department and not given much time to prepare either the original Social Welfare Bill or this legislation. In terms of assisting transition from work and the identification and elimination of welfare traps, this is a challenge and an opportunity which the Minister has, at this time, chosen to miss.

Following Inchydoney there would have been sufficient pressure within the Cabinet to ensure the €14 increase was the first priority. However, after that the Minister had alternative choices to identify and eliminate, on a case by case basis, the many welfare traps which still exist within the system. He has chosen to lessen the traps where they exist, which I accept is fully within his responsibility to do. Fewer people might be affected by particular traps, but the traps still exist. I and many Opposition Members would argue that a better strategy is the elimination, one by one, of these welfare traps and the taking of opportunities such as this legislation as and when they happen.

As with Deputy Ring, I can cite a specific example in my constituency of a woman working part time in what has been described as "yellow pack" employment in a large retail supermarket. Her husband became unemployed and she inquired as to the availability of the family income supplement. She was led through the bureaucracy which surrounds the application for this payment and was told she must conform with the work requirement of 19 or 19.5 hours. She, and thousands like her, do not work a standard 19-hour week. Sometimes they work 21 hours, sometimes 15 hours, depending on when their employer lets them work. Invariably they must work Sundays and bank holidays. The Department's inability to factor in the flexibility of modern working life and marry it with welfare payments has led to the low take-up of payments such as FIS.

Unlike Deputy Ring, I would go further. The best system to allow for maximum take-up of additional resources available to those on low payment is refundable tax credits. It should not be a person's responsibility to go through a bureaucratic system to claim for the additional payment. It should be a direct payment, made by the State, by way of the information that the State already has through the tax system. There would, therefore, be 100% take-up of a system that is already in place should we choose to use it, rather than a bureaucratic nightmare where there is only 30% take-up by people in need in our society. This is just one example of a welfare trap that continues to persist, but there are dozens more. The Minister should take the opportunity in future legislation to identify these traps one by one and make it a priority in the time he has left before the next general election to ensure that these are tackled as soon as possible.

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