Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)

As Chairman of the committee that covers this area, I compliment the Minister on managing to keep the reductions down to €475 million. Others, including some on this side of the House, had planned that we would be heading for a reduction of nearly €1 billion in this Department. It was never going to be easy for any Minister to find reductions of €475 million. We need to get real here: we are trying to do the best we can across a range of rates. The basic rate has been more or less kept the same for nearly everybody involved. The core income of those who depend on social welfare has been protected. Even in a large family with five or six children, if child benefit had been cut by €10 across the board, it would end up in nearly the same place. The key is to protect the basic rate so people know exactly what they will have to work with from year to year.

We can reform many other areas of social welfare in order to make savings while protecting those who are more vulnerable. I welcome many new initiatives the Department of Social Protection has presented to our committee. In the coming year we need to spend a considerable amount of time working with departmental officials to get reforms that will deliver better value for our money. That means reviewing all these schemes.

I welcome the Minister's proposed changes to sections 8 to 10, inclusive, on the disability allowance and the domiciliary care allowance. We now have time to carry out a proper review of that area to decide how best to spend that pot of money. I believe there are people in those categories who are not getting all they need and there are others who may be able to manage with less. We need to ensure it is spent properly. When I say that some people might be getting more than they need, we have a duty to get those people back into training or work if the can at all. I fully acknowledge that there are certain people who, for whatever reason, might not be able to get back into a job and they would need more. We need to look at all these areas of social welfare and ensure we get the best value for money while reforming. In the current climate when we are trying to find such large cuts it is quite an achievement to have got it down to €475 million.

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