Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

A priority for this Government is to protect the most vulnerable in our society, while ensuring that those of us who can afford to carry the heaviest burden do so. An additional €10 million has been provided for the disability sector. We have also prioritised the free pre-school education programme. We have not reduced the contributory old age pension in order that those in our elderly community who are unable to work to improve their incomes are protected. We have also increased funding by €8 million to allow for more home help packages in 2011. We have provided increased funding of €115 million for an additional 120,000 medical cards next year, and additional funding for the following key priority services: older people - € 14 million; the fair deal - another €6 million; cancer - €8 million; child protection, as per the Ryan report recommendations - €9 million and suicide prevention - €1 million.

The reductions in many social welfare payments are a regrettable but necessary, part of this adjustment. Budget 2011 has to be seen in the context of the recently published National Recovery Plan 2011-2014. As the Department of Social Protection is the biggest spending Department, accounting for approximately 38% of total gross Government expenditure, it is not possible to stabilise and reduce our public spending without there being an impact on that Department's budget. Failure to take action now in regard to the level of expenditure by the Department would mean that supports to pensioners, carers, people with disabilities and jobseekers, among others, would become increasingly unsustainable.

There was a common consensus to protect State pensions and we did that. However, that narrows the range of where we can make savings. Jobseekers have already borne a burden in terms of cuts, but the more areas are exempted the more are jobseekers put in the firing line for greater cuts. The unvarnished facts are that to avoid cuts in widows' and widowers' pensions, blind pensions and long-term invalidity, disability and carers' payments, it would have been necessary to implement a far higher cut on the jobseekers' payments.

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