Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

It has been policy for a number of years in my Department not to increase the living alone allowance but to put all the increases into primary payments so that all pensioners benefit. I fully accept that a person who suddenly finds himself or herself in the position of living alone has all the expenses as were outlined. The house does not become any smaller and must be heated etc. The policy has been to try to increase all the payments.

Deputy Enright is correct that I was sympathetic to this issue prior to the budget. I made the unusual statement last week on Committee Stage that if I had received more money, or less money, in the budget package I might have been able to do something about this. If I had received less money, I would have targeted fuel and living alone allowances. If I had more money, I might have been able to provide the increase we gave, the €7 in the pension, plus the living alone allowance. It fell the way it did.

Despite the fact that this has been policy over the past number of years, I have a certain sympathy for people who find themselves living alone, particularly those on a very limited income. It just was not possible to deal with the matter this year and there will be many hurdles to get over in the future in this regard.

Poverty statistics show clearly that people living alone are much more at risk, whether they are of working age, lone parents or pensioners. Arguments could be made in favour of this allowance. However, given the amount in the budget this year, and in order to try to give everybody increases of 3.5%, it was not possible to put the money into the living alone allowance. The 3.5% increase will now be substantially ahead of inflation next year, given the way inflation figures are going.

With regard to Deputy Wall's point about the rent supplement, it is true the rent supplement has not been increased. The personal contribution has not been increased in four years but in that time social welfare payments increased by €70. It was always the intention that the rent supplement would be about 10% of the basic social welfare payment and it is important to try to catch up with it.

If the people in question were to go into a council house, apartment or flat in the morning, they would end up on the lowest line of the differential rate, at €26 or more, in Dublin or Limerick, for instance and would have to take an immediate hike. With the pressure we are putting on councils to house people it would be an even bigger burden for them to have a very big increase. The aim is to try to bring the basic minimum contribution that a person on rent supplement pays in line with the differential.

I accept the point that smaller steps might have been easier over the past few years but, for different reasons, and because money was more flúirseach——

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