Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

A Social Welfare Bill is usually for the purpose of resetting rates post budget and there is an element of that in this Bill. However, in broad terms, the purpose of the Bill is to underpin the social welfare system, which it is very important to do, through sustainable public finances. The fact is that in the supplementary budget the rates enjoyed by the vast majority of social welfare recipients has been protected. There has been no general reduction in rates despite the transformation of the price outlook between last October, when the rates were set for this year, and now. I was just leafing through the memoirs of a former Taoiseach of the 1980s, Dr. Garret FitzGerald. According to his own account, he spent a lot of time worrying about over-indexation of social welfare payments. As far as I am aware, it is not a word that has crossed this Minister's lips.

The previous debate which is relevant to this one concerned the Christmas bonus, which, incidentally, was introduced by Deputy Michael Woods in 1980 when he was Minister for Social Welfare. Of course, it was stopped for two or three years by the Fine Gael-Labour coalition in the mid-1980s. I do not remember much rhetoric from that side of the House-----

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