Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I appreciate the Minister has a report due on family income supplement, but it was due to be completed in July 2008 and it is now 3 December. When will the report be published? I am aware of the objectives of the report as a result of a reply to a parliamentary question, but I am concerned about the numbers involved. Currently, some 26,000 families are in receipt of family income supplement. In 2007, the Department received almost 37,000 family income supplement claims, which was an increase of approximately 4,000 on the previous year and an increase of 10,000 from 2005.

The numbers receiving the supplement are 10,000 fewer than the number of applicants. While it is obvious that everyone who applies for the supplement will not be eligible for it, there is a lack of clarity for applicants with regard to the income limits applicable to those receiving family income supplement. We have all mentioned in the past that there is a poor take-up of the supplement and I am aware the expected report deals with this. However, it is strange that a substantial number of those who apply, almost one third of applicants, are found not eligible for it.

With regard to the importance of the supplement, earlier this week the Society of St. Vincent de Paul highlighted the significant numbers of those in need this year. It expects to have to spend €50 million this year to help people in need and urgently needs €10 million to meet the extra demands on it. It is worrying that this time last year the society had already noticed a sea change, in that people who had been contributors to the society were suddenly the people ringing looking for help. This is a major concern. Currently, two out of every three calls to the society are from families with children and more than one in four calls are from people who never previously used the service. This gives us an indication of the seriousness of the difficulties in which people find themselves.

The society gave figures for the number of calls for help it received in the first nine months of this year. The situation is even more serious now. The calls were up 37% in Dublin, 36% in Cork and 30% in the mid-west. Most other areas are also under significant pressure. The society is a voluntary organisation that runs on donations from the public through box and mass collections, etc., and it fills a void in the social welfare system. I appreciate the budget can never cover everything, but the family income supplement must be examined. I welcome the fact the report is to be published, but we have been waiting and waiting for it. I would like to see it published by the end of the year.

It is a pity that before we come to deal with the social welfare Bill we do not have the opportunity to see such reports, no more than on the issue of lone parents. This brings us back to the point about independence. The Opposition should have the opportunity to look at and examine such reports so we do not need to rely on other organisations for information that the Government has researched itself. We should have the reports that have been published or made available to the Government on these issues.

Families are stretched beyond their capacity. The other areas we have discussed, such as mortgage relief and so on, verify this. The family income supplement needs to be examined because the provisions of budget 2009 will not make a great deal of difference for many families.

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