Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I wish to share time with Deputy Brendan Smith.

Social welfare has been prioritised in this budget because next year total funding for the Department of Social and Family Affairs will be €19.6 billion. This represents an increase of €2.6 billion or 15.5% over the Estimates allocation for 2008. More than 1.7 million people and their dependents will benefit from this expenditure, including 440,000 pensioners, 345,000 ill and disabled people, more than 80,000 carers, 30,000 low income working families availing of the family income supplement and more than 580,000 families that receive child benefit payments.

The budget includes provision for an average live register figure of, unfortunately, 290,000 next year. This compares with an average of just under 210,000 in the nine months to the end of September this year and an expected average of 220,000 for 2008 as a whole. The Government is doing everything it can to keep unemployment as low as possible but it is prudent in the current economic environment to set aside funding in case it continues to rise.

Providing for the expected increase in the live register alone accounts for €1.25 billion of the planned increase in spending next year. In addition to this, provision has been made for €515 million worth of improvements in social welfare rates and qualifying conditions. At a time when it is essential that public expenditure be strictly controlled in the national interest, this increased provision for social welfare is an unambiguous statement of the Government's intent to protect the vulnerable and less well-off in society.

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