Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)

We are all interested to hear the Minister's thinking on this matter. As Deputy Enright said, there is no consensus on what should happen. We all recognised the serious difficulties with poverty traps in the past. I refer to the disincentives encountered by persons who might have been thinking about moving from the welfare system to the workforce. There was an emphasis on child benefit for that reason. There remains a small core of persons who continue to depend on welfare. Does the Minister accept, like many do, that not everybody can go out to work? Some will need to remain on social welfare for various reasons, including child care reasons — children need their parents to look after them in their homes. There will always be people, particularly lone parents, in such circumstances. I am sure the Minister accepts that certain individuals have to stay on welfare because they cannot go out to work due to a disability or a long-term illness.

I am concerned about the children of persons who will depend on welfare indefinitely. The Minister has deemed it possible for such children to survive on €22 per week in the current year. That is the amount the State is giving them on which to live, over and above what every child receives as child benefit. A certain amount is given to my children, the Minister's children and the children of millionaires in the form of child benefit. I am talking about the amount given to parents to bring up their children in addition to this. The children of the poorest of the poor have been given €22 this year. It is obvious that the Minister or somebody in his Department decided that this was inadequate because it has been announced that the payment in question will be increased by €2 per week, a derisory figure. Somebody has deemed it possible for a child to be reared on €3.43 a day from next year on. Anybody with any experience of rearing children knows that is impossible, especially in the case of a 16 or 17 year old who eats like an adult and whose clothes cost the same as an adult's clothes. What is the rationale for keeping the children of social welfare recipients in such poor circumstances? Does the Minister have any evidence to support his policy, to suggest that it is working? Does he have any evidence to suggest that by increasing the qualifying child allowance he will actually discourage parents from entering the workforce? I do not think that is the case any longer. The research conducted in the past no longer applies because of the particular profile of the cohort of parents who remain dependent on social welfare. Is there any social benefit to be gained in keeping the payment so low? Is there any evidence that the payment is acting as a disincentive for parents going out to work? I do not think that is the case. If there is modern research to support this theory, I would very much like to hear about it. In the case of children in families which are very poor, families entirely dependent on social welfare, there can be no justification whatsoever for keeping the payment at a level of a mere €3.43 per day. I ask the Minister to explain his thinking and say whether it is based on current research.

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