Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Social Welfare Bill 2012 and I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy White, to the House.

Like many other Members, I feel for and am concerned for those in our community who are struggling to meet their day-to-day demands and the needs of the less well-off in our society. Carers in our communities work in some of the most demanding and difficult circumstances. They do so with great love, willingness and with the support of the State.

Since the budget was announced this day last week, I have been examining ways of trying to find €26 million to meet the respite grant reduction that was announced by my colleague the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Burton. All Members understand the economic crisis this State is in, particularly with the loss of our financial and social independence to the IMF because of the events and mismanagement of the previous Administration led by Fianna Fáil. However, it remains that social welfare in this country is one of the most supportive and highest paid welfare payments in the European Union, representing approximately 40% of total Government spend.

Accordingly, I find it incredibly difficult to listen to and accept Fianna Fáil's argument that the Government must find the money from the respite grant reduction from somewhere else. The reality is that in the 2011 budget, presented in December 2010, Fianna Fáil cut the carer's allowance and the carer's tax relief, along with the widow's pension, the invalidity pension and the blind pension. If that was not enough, Fianna Fáil removed the Christmas double social welfare payment. Fianna Fáil then opted for an across-the-board cut in payments which is exactly what this Government is trying not to do. It is unbearable having to listen, day in, day out, to the hypocrisy of Fianna Fáil Members like Deputy Kelleher when they criticise this Government which was given a mandate by the people to clean up the Fianna Fáil mess. It was under the Fianna Fáil Administration that judges' pay and severance pay was increased. From information in a reply to a parliamentary question, I note many of the 35 judges who retired in recent years went with a pension and a severance package equivalent to winning the lotto.

For many years I have been troubled by the growth in dependency on the State, the abuse and the fraud in our social welfare system, which can be all too apparent at times. I came across a case recently and when I examined it I noted multiple such cases. I discovered young women who find themselves caring, not for one child or two, but for three and four children by multiple fathers who are uncaring and failing in their duties of care and support with the consequences picked up by the taxpayer. In such circumstances, a woman will have a lone parent allowance, children's allowance, rent subsidy, school grants, a medical card, fuel allowance and special payments from the community welfare officer which come under section 13 of the Social Welfare Act for exceptional payments. When does the State stop providing services for people who, in my view, should not be getting them because of the failings of the fathers of these children? It is a chaotic lifestyle but this increased dependency on the State encourages a new lifestyle of welfare economy. When it was simply impossible to reverse such payments in the good times, how can we cut them when we are in an economic crisis? We cannot continue to fund a welfare dependency economy while other genuine and more deserving citizens are having their payments reduced, including the respite carer's grant.

The establishment of family support for a girl or woman who finds herself in the unfortunate situation of an unplanned pregnancy is far from today's reality when, for example, many women cannot afford to regularise their living arrangements, whether it is marriage or partnership. This simply cannot continue. It is morally and socially wrong. The State cannot continue to pick up this expense for these new arrangements where men, irresponsible fathers who do not accept their responsibilities, are simply coming and going in a blended family type relationship.

I am supporting this budget with a heavy heart because of its impact on some of the most deserving cases. I believe there should be a review of welfare payments, including those cases which I just referred to where there is such abuse. This will allow us funnel the limited resources we have to those who are most needy and those in most crisis. We need to get our economy going. The Government is focused and determined to do this after the mess Fianna Fáil led us into and the opportunities it missed to make necessary changes when, in its own words, the country was awash with money. This Government is committed to making those changes and bringing our country back to life again.

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