Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

"— recognises the severe impact on families, individuals and communities as a result of the closure of businesses and loss of employment arising from the exceptional and difficult economic circumstances;

— recognises the vital role played by spending on social welfare in enabling people to live life with dignity and the importance of Child Benefit as a universal payment as a source of income for all families;

— acknowledges the contribution that spending on social welfare also makes to sustaining economic activity in communities throughout the State and in particular notes the contribution that spending on child income support payments makes to parents raising children and the important role that these payments play in contributing towards alleviating child poverty;

— notes that overall expenditure on the Child Benefit payment grew from just under €965 million in 2001 to approximately €2.2 billion in 2010 and that total spending on child income supports amounted to €3.1 billion in 2010;

— affirms that sustainable public finances are a prerequisite for maintaining an adequate system of social protection and that with the scale of the current economic crisis, it is necessary to address all aspects of the public finances so as to ensure that they are sustainable and to ensure that fairness exists in the allocation of resources;

— encourages the Government to press ahead with the structural reform of the social welfare system to help better target social welfare support to those on lower incomes and ensure that work pays; and

— notes that the Government has established an Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare to examine and make recommendations on a number of issues around the operation and interaction of the tax and social protection systems to address how employment disincentives can be improved and better poverty outcomes achieved, particularly child poverty outcomes, and that the Group is currently examining the area of child and family income supports."

I am pleased to move the Government's amendment to the Sinn Féin motion on social protection payments, particularly those relating to child income supports. It is particularly interesting that Sinn Féin should be putting such a motion when its Minister for Education in Northern Ireland, John O'Dowd, is overseeing education cuts that may see 4,000 jobs lost in the next year, described by the Irish National Teachers Organisation, INTO, as financial Armageddon. Tomorrow, public service workers in Northern Ireland are expected to take strike action over the 3.2% additional pension contributions from public sector workers. While it appears Sinn Féin is willing to take tough measures when in government in Northern Ireland, its Members here object to the reforms and tough measures that need to be taken to restore the Republic's economic sovereignty.

The Government calls on the House to reject the Sinn Féin motion for several reasons. The motion fails to acknowledge the economic situation confronting us requires us to put our public finances on a more sustainable footing so we can eventually restore our economic sovereignty, a critical issue for the future of all our children. I accept Sinn Féin Members care about children but so does every other Member. Guaranteeing our children's future starts with getting our economic sovereignty back. If Sinn Féin is so concerned about our economic sovereignty, it has never explained why it voted for the bank guarantee in 2008.

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