Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

Tá mé ag roinnt mo chuid ama leis na Teachtaí Robert Troy, Dara Calleary agus Charlie McConalogue.

Ar an gcéad dul síos, ba mhaith liom a rá go bhfuil áthas orm deis a bheith agam páirt a ghlacadh sa díospóireacht seo, díospóireacht atá tábhachtach agus muid ag druidim anois leis an chéad cáinaisnéis don Rialtas nua seo.

There have been some very positive contributions to the debate today and last evening. In adding my few words I wish to be positive. There is a large degree of consensus among all Deputies that we want to see the most vulnerable in Irish society protected. I wish the Minister, Deputy Burton, well because I believe she is committed to that exercise and this motion can help her in the very onerous challenge she faces at Cabinet in battling to secure the resources she will need to meet the needs of those on social welfare.

We in Fianna Fáil understandably point to the substantial increases in the social welfare budget over the decade when the financial allocation rose from €6.7 billion in 2000 to €20.9 billion in 2010. Increasing social welfare payments at a time of economic buoyancy is one thing, as we know, but protecting the progress made by the less well-off in society, at a time of financial crisis, is by far the greatest challenge. I, for my part, am satisfied that at a time of unprecedented difficulty for our country, the previous Fianna Fáil-led Government displayed a genuine commitment to those in need by bringing forward and implementing budgets that were progressive, ensuring that those who could pay most did so.

There is no denying, however, that the reductions in benefits borne already by families and individuals, has impacted adversely on the living standards of many. This is why the election promises of Fine Gael and the Labour Party attracted such support and it is why the vulnerable in society want to see the Government fulfil its promises by maintaining the headline welfare rates to which it committed itself in the programme for Government and which the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach reiterated on a number of occasions.

Few could deny that further sharp reductions in welfare spending, as well as causing severe hardship to individuals, would impact on domestic demand at a time when retail sales continue to fall. In its quarterly report, the troika agreed that a balance must be struck between the correction of the public finances and the need to grow demand in the domestic economy. With a 3.3% year on year drop in retail sales being recorded this September, we can see the precarious state of the economy and its vulnerability to a decline in the spending power of social welfare recipients who are most likely to spend a large proportion of their income in the local economy.

The previous Government made a decision to protect the incomes of elderly people dependent on the State pension. They were right to do so. In spite of this, 10% of older people live on incomes below the poverty line, many of them living alone, although some 44% of older couples live on incomes in the bottom 20% of the income distribution. Without the State pension 88% of our population aged over 65 would be living in absolute poverty. If the Government is to renege on its promise to welfare recipients, as it has on many of its election promises, I exhort the Minister not to abandon the needs of the elderly.

It is in this context that the issue of fuel poverty arises. At a time of rapidly rising energy prices and in the aftermath of a number of exceptionally bad winters, elderly people in particular live in terror of not being able to heat their homes. Those most at risk live alone, sometimes in poor-quality accommodation where there are low occupancy rates. They spend a disproportionately high percentage of their income on fuel costs. We have all heard anecdotal evidence of older people retiring to bed early on a winter's evening to save on fuel costs and keep themselves warm. Recent research by the University of Ulster on the rate of excess winter deaths makes shocking reading. The research found that between 1,500 and 2,000 excess winter deaths, namely, the number of additional deaths when compared to figures for other times of the year, occurred on the island of Ireland during the winter of 2009-10. It was further suggested that deaths from cold-related illnesses may be underestimated by as much as 25%. Budget 2011 recognised the vulnerability of people living in fuel poverty and budget 2012 needs to do likewise.

The past three Fianna Fáil-led Governments did much to address the issue of child poverty by significantly increasing child benefit and investing in preschool education in an initiative that should be mirrored in other areas because it effectively showed how the State can sometimes do more with less. We moved from a process of cash support for young children to the early childhood education programme where each child received the guaranteed benefit of a preschool intervention. The consistent child poverty rate, which had fallen from 11% in 2005, in tandem with benefit increases, is now reversed due to unemployment, reductions in family incomes and social welfare cuts. In 2009, almost 19% of children, namely, more than 200,000 children or one in every six children aged under 17, were considered to be at risk of poverty. No doubt the situation has deteriorated in the interim.

It is vitally important, therefore, to consider the scale of child poverty within the family context. As each of us sees in our constituency clinics, one-parent households are at a high risk of poverty. The most recent statistics available to me indicate that 30% of all those in such households, adults and children alike, are vulnerable. We need to work collectively and, in the period ahead, this Government must act responsively to ensure that the welfare system in all its manifestations operates to guarantee that children are supported and protected from poverty while their parents are assisted and encouraged to return to education or training, or to re-enter the workforce. I share the view expressed by Deputy John O'Mahony, who spoke of breaking the poverty cycles and focusing on this area.

In the run-up to each of the past four budgets, as a member of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, I exhorted the then Government to give priority to children at risk of poverty. I again ask the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, to convey to the Minister, Deputy Burton, the need to make certain that such children are given every possible assistance to reach their potential and, in so doing, break the cycle of poverty into which so many of them were born.

The Fianna Fáil motion before the House further calls on the Government not to reduce social welfare expenditure by stealth, and to maintain other social welfare benefits such as widows' pensions, disability pensions and illness benefits. If the Government is to honour its promise to maintain headline rates, pressure will no doubt come from the Department of Finance to radically reduce or eliminate other expenditure programmes within the remit of the Department of Social Protection. In the limited time available to me, I wish in that regard to mention the work of the family resource centres throughout the country. There is a manifest benefit in continuing to support these centres which are mostly located in areas of significant social need. I have seen at first hand that the benefits experienced by families using the two existing family resource centres in my constituency, in Newbridge and the Curragh.

It would be remiss of me to conclude without referencing the current difficulties being experienced by many members of the public when seeking to avail of services from the Department of Social Protection. Inordinate delays are now being experienced by people applying for a variety of benefits. It now takes, on average, 17 weeks to process a one-parent family payment; family income supplement takes 17 weeks on average and the non-contributory pension 15 weeks. The carer's allowance, a particularly sensitive and important payment, takes 13 weeks. If all these issues are important, so too are the areas of appeal. A variety of figures are quoted to us, ranging from 19,000 outstanding appeals to approximately 37,000.

I am unsure what the accurate figure for appeals is, as they continue to clog up the system but one matter is clear. The staff working in the Department of Social Protection are doing a superb job. They work in very pressurised conditions and are unfailingly helpful and courteous to the public they serve. The Minister must divert resources from within her Department to these front-line areas to ensure that people in dire need have their applications processed expeditiously, and that where appeals arise, they are dealt with much more speedily. It takes 45.5 working days, on average, for an appeal for many of the benefits which are essential for people to keep body and soul together.

I believe this Minister intends to do well and that she is well-motivated. We on this side of the House wish to support her in ensuring that she and the Government honour the firm commitments they made to the people in the election and in the programme for Government. I commend the motion to the House.

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