Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I welcome the opportunity to address the Social Welfare Bill and thank the Labour Party for sharing time.

Every year in early December there is quite a fuss over the budget. As every week there is a budgetary announcement of some kind or an increase through the various stealth charges, it is ironic that there is such a big fuss over the December budget.

Somebody once said that a society can be judged by how it treats its weakest. I accept that it can be difficult for a government, in a period of slowing economic growth, to budget a state's finances but it is at such times that a government's commitment to its most vulnerable is tested. Sadly, last week this Government was found wanting in that regard.

While we debate the Social Welfare Bill, which allows the most modest increases for our least well off, there are some figures that we must keep in mind. There are 290,000 people living in consistent poverty in this State — it is a shameful figure — many of whom are children. There are 770,000 people at risk of poverty, many of whom also are children. Last week this Government had the opportunity to take a decisive step towards meeting the national target of reducing consistent poverty to between 2% and 4% by 2012, and to eliminating it completely by 2016. It did not take the opportunity.

Our social welfare system is so wrought with complexities and anomalies that the initial approach to last week's budget should have involved a complete overhaul of the system as it stands. The Minister should have, upon entering new office, examined the system and realised a new criteria for benchmarking needs to be set so welfare rates can reflect current living expenses in the State. He should have recognised that the system needs to be simplified and should have abandoned the 12-page application forms, such as the one for family income supplement. Automatic flagging systems should be put in place, perhaps through the taxation system.

Alarm bells should ring when the Department's staff says it does not understand some of the rules and regulations. The Minister should have identified the welfare traps the system creates when it fails to allow for smooth transition from welfare to work by, for example, not raising income thresholds for rent allowance supplement, which allows an individual to earn very little before he or she loses his or her rent supplement and, potentially, his or her home. He should have realised that "qualified adult status" is both hugely underpaid and discriminatory. He should also have learnt by now that our activation system needs to be overhauled. Paying job seekers a benefit that reflects nothing of what they earned before losing their jobs, then shunting them on to a FÁS course after three months, does not make an "activation" system.

The new Minister, who could have taken the opportunity to do these things and relay them to his colleague in the Department of Finance, along with a list of required resources, did none of this — a complete waste of an opportunity. The allocation to the Department of Social and Family Affairs has been distributed with little or no imagination, no foresight and no tangible results — just €10 or €12 of an increase. The record of the Government is to make grand gestures and throw out figures, while quietly and sneakily taking away increases with the other hand through stealth taxes and the like.

Last week, we were again forced to witness the Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Cowen, pretend to be Santa Claus, handing goodies out of his budget bag. Those of us who know how hard it is to survive on welfare were crestfallen when we heard the minimal increases. To add further to our disappointment, we heard of increases that will directly affect groups like the working poor, such as vehicle tax, accident and emergency and hospital stay-over increases. We can add to these the significant VAT our citizens pay and the ability of local authorities to set refuse charges. Any respite that should have been offered against these charges in the form of the Social Welfare Bill will mean nothing now to those citizens. There is only an increase of €12 per week for people out of work, €14 for pensioners and not a cent increase in the living alone or the fuel allowance. FIS income limits were raised by only €10. The majority of my colleagues across the Chamber would spend more than those amounts on a starter before lunch.

The Bill fails to ease the burden of the working poor. Almost a third of all households at risk of poverty are headed by a person with a job. The minimum increase in the FIS income threshold is a prime example of how little concern the Government holds for this group. These are the people we should target for the medical card. Instead, we had no increase in the medical card threshold and the threshold remains lower than the smallest social welfare payment. How does the Minister explain that?

The Bill fails to improve the living standards of pensioners. The Government lauds itself on the fact that it is on track to increase the pension to €300 by 2012. With the average industrial wage currently between €570 and €670 a week, how much value does the Government think €300 will hold in 2012? Pensions should have been increased by at least €20 this year.

The Bill does nothing for children. The early child care supplement does not solve the child care problem, even after the Minister flings another €100 a year at it. The failure to increase maternity leave and to introduce paid paternity leave shows how little the Government is committed to solving the child care problem. The back to school allowance does not reflect the true cost for families sending their children into our not so free education system, where school books alone can cost anything up to €500. The €2 million extra for the school meals programme will hardly do enough to ensure a State-wide roll-out of school meals. Children will continue to go to school hungry.

There was nothing new in the budget. There was no inspirational thinking and nothing along the lines of Sinn Féin's budget proposals, which called for the Government to overhaul the system to allow for better welfare to work measures and to ensure work is profitable for those on the lowest wages. There were no fresh ideas, like introducing a dietary and clothing allowance for pregnant women or allowing asylum seekers to take part in some form of paid work while they await news from our lengthy application procedures. Instead, the budget leaves them struggling on a direct provision of €19.10 a week.

The Government must get over the notion that social welfare is like a charity and that it, because it is holding the purse strings, must dole out resources like alms to the poor. Our society decided long ago that it wanted a welfare system. The system is not meant as a long-term solution for everybody, though there are some who will always be dependent on the State, but as a means to survive until circumstances improve. The Government is charged with distributing our resources fairly within that system. Every cent taken into the Exchequer belongs to the public. When a marginalised group such as children, the elderly or the disabled say they are struggling to survive, I demand, as a citizen, that they are given the welfare they need. They should not have to come cap in hand to either the Minister for Finance or the Minister for Social and Family Affairs to plead for increases.

Sinn Féin has submitted amendments to this Bill that call on the Minister to review a number of payments and the method by which they are paid. We will support the Bill, on the basis that any increase in welfare must be welcomed, but we will do so stating clearly that we want the Minister to get on with the job he is paid handsomely to do and make our social welfare system work. He must not let next year's budget be another in a long list of paltry, insulting hand-outs.

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