Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

I compliment the Minister, Deputy Cullen, and his officials on the very comprehensive package introduced in the Bill. We are committed to building an inclusive society. We have delivered unprecedented increases in social welfare and now we want to go further and end consistent poverty in Ireland once and for all. In February we launched the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016: Building an Inclusive Society, with the aim of reducing the number of those experiencing consistent poverty to between 2% and 4% by 2012 and eliminating consistent poverty by 2016.

The investment of €50 billion in social inclusion over the years of the new national development plan will deliver a comprehensive assault on poverty and exclusion. This will fund pre-school education for children, provide greater support for lone parents and the long-term unemployed, help people with disabilities to secure access to employment and older people to access community care services, as well as helping communities to provide housing, health services and strategies to assist newcomers to integrate into Irish society.

We have significantly reduced poverty levels. Analysis suggests that 250,000 people, including 100,000 children, have been lifted out of deprivation and hardship since 1997 as a result of our targeted measures and supports. We have implemented the largest series of social welfare and child benefit increases in the history of social welfare in this country. This year we are providing supports and services which aim to benefit more than 1.5 million people.

Tax changes in 2008 mean that those on the minimum wage pay no income tax. The latest results from the EU survey on income and living conditions indicate that the rate of consistent poverty in the population in 2006 was 6.5%, having reduced from 8.2% in 2003. Most notably the rate of consistent poverty among older people has come down to 2.2 % in 2006.

The new Government has appointed a Minister of State with cross-departmental responsibility for older people. I am delighted my county colleague, Deputy Hoctor, has that role. We have prioritised improved support for carers, expansion of community-based supports and improvements in the quality and availability of hospital and residential care. In budget 2008 we are providing €135 million for health services for older people. In the past two years, this Government has funded the largest ever expansion in services for older people with the provision of over €400 million. This year, an additional €135 million is being provided for the introduction in 2008 of the new long-term residential care scheme, a fair deal, costing €110 million, and the provision of €25 million for complementary community support services for older people and for palliative care.

I am concerned about two issues in particular, which I am aware the Minister is examining. I refer to monitoring fees for socially monitored alarms, for which the fees vary from €60 to €90 per person, and personal information packs, PIPs. Currently, approximately 60,000 persons are supplied with socially monitored alarm systems which are funded by the community supports for older people programme through the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. The annual cost to the Exchequer would be approximately €4.5 million. That would be money well spent as some of the systems that are provided to households become dormant because people, for whatever reason, do not or cannot make the payment for the monitoring fee, which is only between €50 and €80.

The personal information pack, PIP, is based on the English "bottle in the fridge" programme. This is a system whereby an elderly or vulnerable person's medical history, medication etc. is recorded and safely stored within the home, usually in the fridge. It is available to the emergency services in the event of them being called to a person's home. The cost of this measure, which is a nominal €2, could be included on a person's medical card.

I am a board member of Muintir na Tíre which runs the community alert programme and I am very enthusiastic about this measure as it would cut down hugely on the critical time after paramedics are called to a house where somebody was found in a comatose state. In some cases a person can be in hospital for up to 24 hours before important medical documents are sourced.

All such documentation, with the assistance and co-operation of the nursing sector and the general practitioners, could be safely available on this legible package that is stored in the fridge and the medics would know where to look for it. I ask the Minister to consider that. I compliment him on the excellent reforms in the package and wish him well with their implementation.

See this speech in context