Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

Yes. The difficulty was created by the Deputy's own party in government. When the then Minister, the late Brian Lenihan, announced that we would move to a universal social charge that implied that it would be within the structure of being similar to a universal social contribution. In the event, when the then Minister for Finance introduced his legislation it was a universal social charge and as the former Minister, Mary Harney, stated on the night of the budget - I questioned her at length at the time, as did Deputy Ó Snodaigh - this is a tax. Because it is a tax it does not interact with the social welfare system in the way that something which is contribution based would do. The essence of the social insurance system is that it is contribution based whereas the universal social charge has the word "social" in its title but it is actually a tax.

What we are doing in this legislation is providing for it in regard to family income supplement because family income supplement is specifically designed to help low paid families at work. My predecessor, the former Minister for Social Protection, had it within his remit to take the actions the Deputy is now suggesting, namely, to amend it by regulation.

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