Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Shortall and the Members of the Labour Party for tabling the motion, which we, in the Fine Gael Party, support.

As a parent of a young family and from talking with many of my friends and constituents, I know the huge pressures that are currently being placed on families. Many of the additional pressures now being placed on parents is due to the financial difficulties in which they find themselves, as a result of the Government's mismanagement of the economy.

Child benefit has become a vital payment for every child in this country, a payment that many women rely on to help pay for child care, repay loans, meet ESB and gas bills, help out with the interest payments on mortgages, save for expensive occasions such as Christmas, holy communion, confirmation and children going back to school. That is the reality for hundreds of thousands of families throughout the country, not just those in the lower income brackets. Child benefit is a necessity, not a luxury, for thousands of households either in mortgage arrears, making rent payments, or trying to cope with large levels of personal debt.

Why should we penalise children living in households with a significant taxable income but with large debt levels and little or no disposable income? The suggestion that a graduated system of child benefit payments would be made to mothers based on the household taxable income fails to take into consideration the levels of indebtedness in family households. The Government has done little to support struggling families who have suffered from the downturn and are experiencing difficulty repaying their mortgages and household.

A means-tested child benefit system would create further financial barriers for many people who want to get off social welfare and back to work. There are more than enough anomalies without creating yet another incentive to give up work and move on to social welfare. Earlier speakers referred to unemployment traps. The McCarthy report, currently the Government's bible, highlights the issue of unemployment traps. It is important that the rates and benefits available under the social welfare system do not inhibit a return to work. For those of working age there are increasing indications that the level of welfare payments is creating disincentive effects for improved labour participation. An example is given of a Dublin-based couple with three children, aged four, eight and 11, who avail of benefits to the value of €23,000. With the addition of rent supplement the benefits could rise to approximately €35,500 per annum plus an additional €6,500 in child benefit payments. That would increase the gap that exists between people on social welfare and those who are willing to go to work by another €6,500, which would impose a further disincentive to people getting out of the social welfare system and back to work.

Even greater anomalies exist within the tax system. We have a taxation policy that gives greater recognition to bins than it does to babies. Fianna Fáil has developed a crazy tax system that recognises the cost of paying for refuse collection, but ignores the costs associated with raising children. Ireland is one of the few developed countries in the world that fails to give any recognition to children within the taxation system. Child benefit payments are therefore the only support provided to families to assist them with the raising of children. To add insult to injury, the Government intends to use the tax system to graduate the payment of child benefit, and to deprive families of those essential payments, but it is still not prepared to recognise costs such child care and the day to day costs of rearing children.

I welcome the Taoiseach's indication recently that pension payments will not be cut. Given that Fianna Fáil is largely to blame for the current economic mess, it is clearly wrong for the most vulnerable sections of society to pay the price by having their entitlements slashed. However, Fianna Fáil seems determined to undermine another section of society in need of State support, namely, children. The Government is showing every sign of slashing child benefit in the next budget.

I remind the Taoiseach that he stated recently that budgets were not simply about balancing books, important as that is. The Taoiseach said a budget was also about "acknowledging what we all see as important in society". Does that mean that the Taoiseach and his Government think more of refuse bins than they do of our children? Deputy Kenny has categorically stated that Fine Gael is committed to leaving child benefit untouched as thousands of hard-pressed families have come to depend on that direct payment.

More than any other party, Fine Gael understands the need to make savings in the forthcoming budget. It was the Government's irresponsible squandering of taxpayers' money during the boom that got the country into this mess in the first place. However, there are other ways to make savings than to slash child benefit. Fine Gael's budget approach is to stimulate job creation to get the country back on its feet and to target savings away from front-line services in order to protect both the young and the old in society. Child benefit is no luxury, it is an essential part of household income. Fine Gael will do all it can to ensure that children are protected.

We have long argued that the best way to reduce the social welfare budget is to get people back to work. Sadly, the Government has already accepted the fact that it intends to allow a further 72,000 people join the dole queues next year. Fine Gael, on the other hand, has a radical plan to transform the economy, make it competitive again and get people back to work. Our proposals, as set out the New Era plan would create 105,000 jobs. Getting that number of people back to work would save the Exchequer €2,100 million in a year. Not only that, but New Era would transform the economy by investing €18 billion over four years to make our broadband network among the top five in the world, turn us in to a net energy exporter by 2030 with 50% of our energy coming from renewable energy sources by 2020 and overhaul our water networks and infrastructure.

That comes on the back of plans to maintain 80,000 existing jobs in the small and medium enterprise sector. Fine Gael has outlined 18 different measures to support that plan, along with PRSI changes to support the employers of 1.7 million workers in the economy. There is not a man, woman or child in this country who is not aware of the depth of the challenges facing us. They are bigger than any one individual but the right policies can be used to tackle the issues head-on and provide us with what we need most, namely, jobs. There are ways of making savings in budgets if the Government has the will and the courage to deliver them. They require real reform and determination to succeed. Simply hitting front-line services or taking money off the most vulnerable in society with no plan to get people back to work is not acceptable.

The Government has proposed to either tax or means-test child benefit, which would involve huge administrative costs. The Revenue Commissioners are already struggling to cope with the changes to mortgage interest relief. The Department of Social and Family Affairs is struggling to cope with the processing of unemployment claims. The Revenue Commissioners who collect the taxes do not have the information on children to link it to the tax system while the Department of Social and Family Affairs does not have the detailed information on the taxation status of children's families to deal with the issue through child benefit. We are talking about creating an administrative nightmare that will cost as much as it will save.

The Government claims that its plans to cut child benefit are essential to making the savings it requires, but nobody should expect children to shoulder the blame for the Government's mistakes. Targeting the nation's children for savings is patently wrong and unfair. There are other ways of making savings in the social welfare budget, including measures such as eliminating fraudulent claims and by changes in Government spending, which would not represent a direct attack on one of the few payments made directly to parents for their children. Our children will play a vital role in Ireland's economic recovery. It would therefore be foolish, not to mention unfair, to penalise the very people on whom we will depend in the future.

Fine Gael is committed to not changing the child benefit payment, a payment on which thousands of hard-pressed families depend. I commend the motion to the House.

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