Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

A number of issues have been raised and there is no point in just talking about the overall economic position when we are dealing with specifics. Structural change had to be brought about, which meant expenditure had to be reduced, and that would have a bearing next year and the year after. It is not just a simple case of bringing all this in with revenue. We had to reduce expenditure across Departments.

This is about opportunities and security, and it concerns giving those young people hope for the future. There will not be jobs, opportunity or security for those young people unless we get this country's finances right. That is what we are endeavouring to do in this budget, although we appreciate the difficulties that has caused for the significant number of people who will feel its impact.

Deputy Kathleen Lynch has a genuine interest in many different issues surrounding disability and all welfare recipients. I respect that. The idea of giving more people secondary benefits is curious when there is much evidence showing that secondary benefits cause people who might be in a position to get off welfare not to want to get off it. Nobody will say that the rates will keep people on welfare but when welfare recipients know they can get household benefits, free travel, rent supplement and mortgage interest supplement they can become trapped.

I am not sure that extending secondary benefits to more people will help them to break aware from the welfare system, although it will assist financially. On the other hand, a person could be on the widow's contributory pension and be able to work anyway. I fully appreciate the issues involved for widows.

We are going back around the houses with the other issues brought up. Deputy Tom Sheahan asked about contingency. The figures for the Department were worked out on the basis of 460,000 people unemployed on average. On the one hand we are anticipating that, unfortunately, approximately 70,000 more people will lose their jobs but all the evidence indicates that the live register has stabilised. We were in a horrific position last January when 1,000 people per day were losing their jobs. I am sure Deputy Sheahan will be well able to ask his own questions.

Fortunately the position has now stabilised because that was an horrific position for everybody involved. The average figure for next year has been revised downwards. It is anticipated that if growth returns to the country in the second half of next year, employment will be a bit slower to follow. Notwithstanding the cuts being made in the budget, there is an additional allowance of €676 million in this Department. God forbid, if there should be any increased demand, the budget will have to grow because these are demand-led schemes. That is our best estimate.

See this speech in context