Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil leis na Teachtaí uilig a labhair ar son agus i gcoinne an Bhille seo. D'fháiltigh iad siúd a labhair i gcoinne na reachtaíochta roimh de sonraí an Bhille. Chuir siad go mór leis an díospóireacht. It is significant that so many people on both sides of the House chose to speak on this Bill, recognising its significance. It is possibly the only and most important Bill any Minister for Social and Family Affairs gets to introduce during the year, particularly because it contains so many positive measures. After all, this is the Bill which gives legislative effect to the changes brought about in the budget.

Never has so much money been spent on social welfare in this country and in recent years we have not had a need for this amount of money. Given the economic context in which we find ourselves, nationally and internationally, it is important not only to make provision but to ensure our expenditure is kept under control as far as possible while ensuring we do not attack in any way the most vulnerable or penalise those who do not deserve to suffer. What we have done in the budget and in this Bill is a fair balance in this regard.

Of total Government expenditure for the year, €19.6 billion is a large amount. Notwithstanding the difficulties, we will have an increase of €2.6 billion next year, which represents a 15.5% increase on the Estimates allocation for 2008. As Deputies pointed out, it includes the money necessary to provide for the increase in the live register. The Government's priority is to ensure we keep unemployment as low as possible, create employment, get people back to work as quickly as possible and keep them at work.

People who lose their jobs need to turn to social welfare for income support. In anticipating an average of 290,000 people on the live register during next year we had to make provision for it. The increases in this alone account for €1.25 billion of the planned increases in spending next year and this is a large amount of money. Notwithstanding this, and recognising older people and others depending on social welfare also needed increases to help them cope with the changing circumstances, we managed to put together a budget package of €515 million.

Deputies opposite have stated it is not as good as recent years and it is not but neither are the economic circumstances. We had to work within what we had. Pensioners welcome the €7 increase they will receive. The two week extension on the fuel allowance and the additional €2 have also been welcomed. The extension by two weeks is making a difference to people and this is what they have indicated to us. With regard to other payments, we try to do as much as we can for as many as possible but we must also target it. It was more important to target the qualifying child of the unemployed worker or the person benefitting from family income support and put the increase there than it was to put it on child benefit generally which goes to people who do not need it in the same way.

We showed our commitment to families by increasing the number of people who qualify for family income support and the improvement is significant. A total of 18,000 more families will benefit from the back to school clothing and footwear allowance. I had to consider whether we would increase the amount of money or increase the number of families. I chose to increase the number of families and this is an important distinction.

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