Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to detail for the House the actions that the Department of Social and Family Affairs will be taking as part of the Government's collective approach to controlling short-term expenditure in the interests of Ireland's future prosperity. As the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance outlined yesterday and today, with the downturn in the global economy and the adjustments taking place in the Irish housing sector, the amount of revenue received by the Government from taxation so far this year has been much lower than expected and the outlook for the tax intake for the rest of 2008 remains weak.

Taking action now is essential if we are to enable the Irish economy to weather its current difficulties and realise the more favourable growth rates that the ESRI and others believe can be achieved within the next few years. The measures that were announced yesterday are the result of careful consideration by the Cabinet as a whole. They are designed to ensure that we work together to bring overall expenditure more in line with income. They reflect our collective determination to act now in order to protect the future. More importantly, as the Taoiseach has made clear, they are also informed by a desire to protect the most vulnerable people in Irish society during these challenging economic times.

As Deputies will be aware, the number of people on the live register at present is much higher than had been anticipated, with the seasonably adjusted figure for June 2008 representing an increase of a third on the same period last year. The live register is not a register of unemployment, as people claiming jobseeker's benefit may be working up to three days a week while seeking full-time positions. However, it is a measure of the number of workers who need assistance from the State. The actual unemployment rate is estimated to have risen to 5.7% last month. Behind these figures lie real families experiencing real difficulties — people with children, with mortgages and with worries about the future. These are people whom the Government is determined to prioritise.

While statistics are of little consolation to the person who has lost his or her job after many years of hard work, it is important to note that the fundamentals of our labour market are still good. We currently have more than 2.1 million people in employment, following record job creation during the past ten years. A total of 53,800 jobs were created in the first quarter of this year. While some sectors of the economy, most notably construction and traditional manufacturing, are experiencing a slowdown, other areas such as services are continuing to grow.

It is also worth noting that while the unemployment rate for June is much higher than had been anticipated, it is still a long way from the 10.4% rate of June 1998, let alone the very high rates of the 1980s. It also compares favourably with the kind of rates being experienced by other EU countries. Furthermore, CSO figures show 75% of those on the live register last April had been on it for less than a year, while 42% had been on it for less than three months. Therefore, the unemployment situation, while not as we would wish to have it, is still a long way from the bleak position of previous times.

At the same time, our social assistance system is in a much better position to help the unemployed than ever before. Basic social welfare rates have increased by 79% since 2002, which is more than three times ahead of the 23% increase in the consumer price index, or a real increase of 56%. In addition, improvements in child-related payments mean that a welfare-dependent family with, for example, a child of three and a child of ten, will receive more than €8,000 in direct child income support this year.

More significant, however, are the improvements in measures designed to facilitate people in entering or re-entering the workforce. A wide range of initiatives have been introduced in recent years to help people to improve their employability through education and training, to remove barriers to work and to eliminate poverty traps. Under the national employment action plan, people who are approaching three months on the live register are referred to FÁS for interview with a view to job placement or an offer of training. A team of 40 facilitators is also in place in the Department of Social and Family Affairs to provide additional, more intensive assistance for those that need it such as people who have been identified by FÁS as needing further support. As part of the priority now placed on activation, the Department's facilitators are working closely with FÁS and other agencies at national and local level to target their assistance at such groups. I recently met the director of FÁS to discuss how our respective organisations can further enhance their co-operation in the period ahead.

As an immediate priority, it is intended to refocus the work of the Department's facilitators to target specific attention and support at certain categories of people with a view to minimising the risk of them becoming long-term unemployed. This includes, for example, younger people signing on for the first time and people who have completed the employment action plan process but who are still on the live register. This targeted approach will involve active case management with the development of an individualised personal progression plan. The facilitator and individual will work together to identify the most appropriate method of progressing to training or employment.

We are also committed to removing barriers to work and eliminating poverty traps. Significant progress has been made in that regard in recent years through improvements such as changes in means-testing arrangements for certain payments and the tapered withdrawal of benefits. In addition, the Department has a range of supports such as the back to work and back to education allowances for those who leave welfare to go into full-time work or education. Taken together, the improvements in payment rates, the focus on activation and the removal of poverty traps that have been prioritised in recent years mean that a solid system is now in place to help people get back to work.

Nonetheless, it is expected that expenditure by the Department of Social and Family Affairs on income support payments will be significantly higher than originally forecast this year. The final level of social welfare expenditure this year will be affected by the performance of the live register. The figure underpinning the 2008 Estimates was an average live register of 170,000 for the year. Unfortunately, it is now projected that the average live register will be in the order of 210,000. The main schemes affected are jobseeker's benefit, jobseeker's allowance and insolvency and redundancy payments. There will also be a knock-on effect on the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, particularly in the area of rent and mortgage interest supplement. My priority is to ensure that vulnerable people dependent on social welfare continue to be protected while at the same time ensuring that resources are directed only towards those who are entitled to them.

The Department of Social and Family Affairs already has a fourfold approach in place to combat social welfare fraud and errors through prevention, detection, deterrence and debt recovery. Last year, claim reviews and employer inspections generated control savings of nearly €450 million. The targets set at the beginning of this year aimed to realise savings of €511 million. We are on course to achieve that target.

In the context of increased expenditure on welfare payments, it is important to increase the Department's control activities to keep fraud and errors to a minimum and to eliminate incorrect payments. As part of the measures announced by the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance yesterday, the Department is therefore targeting additional savings of €25 million this year from control activities. Particular emphasis will be placed on ensuring that people on the live register demonstrate that they are actively seeking employment and that they engage fully with the employment action plan and other opportunities to re-enter the labour market.

I intend to generate further savings of €4.8 million from the introduction of efficiency measures by the Department and the agencies under its remit. In particular, expenditure on advertising and public awareness activities will be reduced. This action is being taken in a situation where information on the full range of social welfare schemes and services is available from the Department's local offices and the nationwide network of citizens information centres. In addition, many people access information on the websites of the Department and the Citizen Information Board. Essential advertising campaigns will continue to be undertaken as required.

The Department will also be able to generate savings of more than €3 million this year on a more gradual deployment of IT and e-Government related projects. In some cases these savings arise because it has taken longer to develop the technology underpinning the new systems than was anticipated at the beginning of the year. In other cases, the Department is considering how a more gradual deployment can be effected without impacting on day-to-day delivery of services.

In regard to the agencies that come under the Department's remit, in line with the announcement by the Minister for Finance, the Department will review the roles and operations of the agencies under its aegis. In this context, opportunities for achieving efficiencies through shared services, absorbing functions into the Department, or amalgamating or abolishing bodies will be examined.

The statutory basis for the introduction of a personal advocacy service under the Citizens Information Board was provided for in the Citizens Information Act 2007. It is the Government's intention to introduce this service at an appropriate time. However, having regard to the current budgetary circumstances, the service will not be introduced this year and savings of around €500,000 will be generated by the Citizens Information Board as a result.

I want to reiterate, however, that the advocacy service remains a priority. In the meantime, significant resources have been and will continue to be provided for the provision of advocacy services to people with disabilities under the auspices of the Citizens Information Board. The community and voluntary sector advocacy programme has been developed by the board since 2004 and currently has 47 separate advocacy projects. The overall focus of the programme is on representative advocacy for people with a disability. Projects either operate within a specific geographic area or are focused on a particular disability type. The Citizen Information Board is monitoring the programme to ensure that the projects are operating in accordance with the board's advocacy guidelines.

The board already provides advocacy through the citizens information services focusing on access to services, welfare entitlements and employment rights. This type of mainstream advocacy is also open to people with disabilities and the community and voluntary sector advocacy programme is creating close links with the citizens information services to ensure that people with disabilities are encouraged and supported to use the mainstream services where possible. This advocacy capacity is being strengthened through the support of nine advocacy resource officers.

In regard to the Family Support Agency, I reiterate that I am committed to supporting families and value the role that the family resource centres play in communities throughout the country. Funding from the Family Support Agency helps with staffing and equipping these centres. By the end of 2007, the number of family resource centres had expanded from an original ten to 106 nationwide. The funding for the programme increased from €317,000 in 1994 to nearly €19 million in 2007.

In the context of the national development plan, it was intended to expand the number of family resource centres by up to six centres this year and to provide some existing ones with additional staff. However, with the exception of a new centre in Killeshandra that was approved earlier this year, no new centres will open in 2008. It will also not be possible to increase the staffing complement of the existing centres. These measures will enable the agency to save €2.5 million in 2008. It will achieve a further €400,000 savings by deferring the refurbishment of offices of the Family Mediation Service.

Government support for family services will however remain strong. Last year, additional staff were funded for 40 family resource centres. It should also be noted that only last month I approved counselling grants of almost €11 million to 600 voluntary and community groups supporting families nationwide.

Another body which receives significant funding from the Department is the Combat Poverty Agency. Savings of €165,000 in the agency's 2008 expenditure are to be achieved mainly though reductions in spending on advertising and awareness raising activities. A number of conferences which were under consideration will not proceed at this time. As Deputies will be aware, a wide-ranging review of the agency is almost complete and that will inform decisions on its future position.

Over the past decade or so, this Government has significantly improved the standard of living of welfare-dependent and low-income households generally thereby making a decisive impact on poverty and social exclusion. Income support levels have been dramatically increased and the welfare system has been reformed and modernised to reflect our new society. We have clearly demonstrated our commitment to protecting the vulnerable and in these more difficult times we will continue to do so.

I am conscious of the fact that all Departments are making savings in order to meet the expenditure pressures generated by increases in the live register; these are the people whom we need to support most. I am also committed to ensuring that the Department of Social and Family Affairs plays its part in helping to control expenditure in these more challenging economic circumstances. The savings committed to by the Department will deliver efficiencies and reductions in areas such as IT and advertising, while protecting the improvements in welfare payments that have been put in place in recent years.

See this speech in context