Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I thank all colleagues for their contributions to the debate on the first of the two social welfare Bills. There is a general welcome on all sides of the House for many of the proposed measures. This is important, as we seek to ensure those in society who need support are given that support and that we target resources to the less well-off. In recent years the Government has done outstanding work in putting together packages in this regard, particularly in the case of old age pensions, carer's allowance, children, etc.

I know colleagues on the other side of the House can pick out some areas and suggest payments should be greater. That may be true and would be all very well if we only had one payment to make. However, we have a significant range of areas to deal with. The budget for the Department of Family and Social Affairs which has risen dramatically during the years is now just under €17 billion. It has risen at a time when unemployment has dropped to almost record lows; we effectively have full employment. This demonstrates that the policy changes made in the Department have been significant and far-reaching and reflected the needs of the country now compared to ten, 15 or 20 years ago when most of the Department's resources and efforts were aimed at the high numbers of unemployed.

We now look to a much more constructive, interventionist approach with specific policies across a significant range of areas, which is an important responsibility. In that context, we have choices to make as to how best to use our resources. While I respect and accept the fact that people will seek dramatic and substantial increases in isolation in certain areas, when one puts together a social welfare package, one must look right across the spectrum to maximise the resources available. I acknowledge and thank my officials for their assistance in doing this and working through the different areas with me to see how we could do it.

Many Deputies raised interesting and important issues. Deputy Shortall spoke about the State contributory pension. One of the main commitments influencing the formation of the 2008 budget package with regard to weekly rates of payment for pensioners was the commitment to increase the basic State pension by approximately 50%, to at least €300 per week by 2012, as set out in the programme for Government. The budget package provides for increases of €14 in the State contributory pension, bringing the weekly rate to €223.30. Increases in pensions over many years have been one of the major achievements of the Government. Since 2002 the level of the State contributory pension has increased by over 50%. It has increased from €147.30 to €223.30 following the budget. By national or international measures, this is a significant increase. I am satisfied the Government will continue to build on this and that the target of €300 a week by 2012 will be achieved over the next four budgets.

Deputy Enright and others referred to the living alone allowance. This allowance is an additional payment of €7.70 per week made to persons aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments and who live alone. It is also available to persons under 66 years of age who live alone and receive payments under one of a number of invalidity type schemes. The allowance is intended as a contribution towards the additional costs pensioners face when they live alone. However, the downside is that this is lost when they need to live with someone else.

The policy for many years with regard to support for pensioners has been to give priority to increasing the personal rates of pensions, rather than supplements such as the living alone allowance. This aims to improve the position of all pensioners, which is the correct approach. We have substantially improved the lot of pensioners right across the spectrum, which has been of far greater significance than just increasing the living alone allowance for a smaller number. While colleagues in the House have spoken about this in the past, it has not been raised for some time. There is a logical reason for this. We have done much for the generality of pensioners and the increases have been significant. That was the correct approach. At the time the living alone allowance was introduced pensions were much smaller than they are now and there were not as many resources. This was recognised at the time and an effort was made. Nowadays, however, more effort is put into increasing the size of the pension. As I said, since 2002 the contributory pension has increased by more than 50%. This has been far more meaningful and far better for all pensioners, including those living alone, than targeting of the living alone allowance would have been. I intend to maintain a strong pace towards the target of €300 per week by 2012. That is the correct approach because those living alone also benefit directly.

The take-up of child income support and family income supplement, FIS, was raised by Deputies Enright, Shortall and Curran. The Government remains focused on substantially reducing child poverty. The level of commitment was particularly prominent in budget 2008, in which I announced a range of targeted measures and supports costing more than €147 million in a full year and €194 million if we include the early child care supplement which goes through the Department of my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children with responsibility for children. This package of just under €200 million is specifically to benefit children in low income families and those on social welfare. The budget provided social welfare dependent families with increases of at least 6% in overall child income support through a combination of child benefit, qualified child increases, back to school clothing and footwear allowance and the early child care supplement. This is well above anticipated increases in prices and earnings for 2008. For example, a social welfare dependent family with two children, one under six years and one between six and 12 years of age, will receive more than €8,000 per year or €77 per week in child support.

Children are members of families and the main route out of family poverty is employment. Therefore, it is important to avoid creating disincentives to employment through child income support measures while addressing child poverty. That was one of the messages stated by the various groups with which I met when we discussed these matters at the forum. There is a fine line which must be carefully monitored between providing support and removing the incentive to go out to work and get back into society, thus making a contribution. It is clear that improving the circumstances of children by facilitating their parents in going out to work is better for everybody concerned.

The revamped activation and family support programme will have a budget of €6.5 million next year. Among other things, the programme will provide or co-fund training and development programmes for particularly disadvantaged social welfare customers and their families, including very young lone mothers. The latter, in particular, is an area that needs to be dealt with. The education of many young parents is not up to a great standard. Many also have low levels of literacy. We need to provide the resources to allow them to return to the workplace. This new programme will seek to address specifically the issues and deficiencies they have in their ability to return to the workplace. As I said, research has shown that poverty is more likely to be concentrated in larger families. In this context, the new FIS thresholds, with substantial increases in all payments, concentrate additional resources on larger families. This year's threshold increase of €10 per child continues the refocusing towards larger families.

Since the 1994 ESRI survey referred to by Deputy Enright, there have been substantial improvements with consequent significant increases in the take-up of FIS. Deputy Shortall also raised this issue. In the period 1997 to 2007 the take-up has increased from under 13,000 families to over 21,000. It is expected this will increase to approximately 29,000 families in the coming period when claims in hand are processed. This is a significant expected increase and due to the efforts made, as mentioned by a number of Deputies, to alert people who are not in the social welfare system but are in low income employment that in many cases FIS is available to support them. This is a definite help to many families. Becasue it is aimed at those in employment, it represents a move away from keeping people in the system and towards supporting them in the workplace, while recognising that they do need the support of the State.

A number of Deputies mentioned carers, including Deputies Enright, Shortall and Durkan. According to the 2006 census, there are approximately 50,000 people providing care for more than 43 hours per week, or just over six hours per day. Of these, 14,068 are classified by principal economic status as being at work. There are more than 34,000 in receipt of carer's allowance and carer's benefit, while approximately 42,000 received a respite care grant in 2007. The 2006 census does not give information on the number of hours worked by persons in employment; however, a significant proportion of the 14,068 classified as being at work are working more than 15 hours per week. As such, they would not satisfy the full-time care and attention requirement for carer's allowance, carer's benefit or the respite care grant.

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