Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy is referring to the research report of the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice titled, Minimum Essential Budgets for Six Households, which was published in November 2006. The partnership is updating the findings of that research to reflect improvements in social welfare and other benefits introduced in budget 2007 or during the course of the past year. A draft of that work has been furnished to my Department and is being studied by my officials. I understand that my officials have some queries that they have raised and will continue to raise with the partnership.

It is clear at this stage that the decisive steps taken by the Government on a wide range of fronts in the past two years have addressed some of the problems and challenges identified in this report and other similar studies. Such actions include the introduction of the early child care supplement, introduced after the research for this project was conducted, and its subsequent increase in budget 2008 to €1,100 per annum for each child under the age of six years, the introduction of the national child care investment programme, improvements in the means testing arrangements for jobseeker's allowance and a wide ranging reform of the assessment of spouses' earnings for that allowance, disability allowance and other payments designed to encourage people to work and increase total household income.

Other actions include changes in the upper earnings limit for the one-parent family payment, increases in the national minimum wage, an increase in the family income supplement and its extension to a greater number of families, significant increases in social welfare payments in the last two budgets, which have seen pensions increase by €30 per week since 2006 and basic social welfare rate by €32 per week in the same period — these increases have been well in excess of inflation and wage growth — and increases of more than 10% in the rates of child benefit together with a significant restructuring and enhancement of qualified child allowance.

The Government is committed to improving the standard of living of welfare dependent and low-income households significantly and to making a decisive impact on poverty and social exclusion. We have clearly demonstrated our commitment in this regard and will continue to do so.

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