Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Leader of the Opposition will be aware that the budgetary discussion is ongoing and that clarity will be provided on 9 December. We will indicate what choices the Government had to make, the reasons we made them and we will seek to do this in a way that is as fair and as equitable as possible. With regard to the social welfare budget, I have simply made the case that we have a spend of €21.5 billion under that expenditure heading and the scale of adjustment that has to be made means we have to look at areas we normally would not look at. That has to be done because if we do not make the adjustment, the prospect of a sustainable level of service provision for people dependent on social welfare would be put at greater risk and a greater adjustment would have to be considered in the future. It is a question of examining all the options carefully and the Government is conscious of this having seen increases in social welfare rates, even last year. We sought to bring forward increases of between 3% and 3.8% in the budget, even though the cost of living has fallen by 6.5% this year.

The Government is conscious this is an area for careful consideration but the Deputy knows he cannot expect me to outline any aspect of the budget, particularly when decisions have not been taken. We have been open, honest and frank in conveying to the public and to the House that all areas of expenditure, including the social welfare budget, must be examined to make the adjustment we have to make. This is against a background of a social welfare budget that is 20% higher than last year. They are the issues and the facts and we have to deal with them. I am afraid the Opposition will have to await the day of the budget when we will outline the decisions taken. No decisions have been taken but all options are being looked at.

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