John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It was obvious as far back as 2009 or 2010 that the budget for 2013 was going to be the most difficult of all, whether it was introduced by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Labour Party, the Technical Group or anybody else. At that stage, if one had looked back to the year 2000, it was a time when there was wastage and misspending and the economy was built on quicksand, with no provision being made for the rainy day, whereas now we have a torrent. In those early days of 2008 and 2009 we were being told it was just a mere blip, that there would be a soft landing and that the economy was sound. In reality, we were on a cliff and facing economic challenges that the State had never faced since its foundation.

The challenge for the Government has been as far as possible to protect the vulnerable, while getting back our economic sovereignty at the same time. This has to be done at a time when income from taxes is coming in at 2000 levels but social welfare payments need to be, as far as possible, kept near to 2013 levels. Many measures in the past couple of years have successfully protected the vulnerable in society. Some 300,000 people were made exempt from the universal social charge last year and in the past year 150,000 medical cards were issued when there was only a projected need for 105,000. The reality is that 42%, almost within shouting distance of half the population, have medical cards whereas, at the end of the time of plenty in 2007, only 27% had them. In many instances, therefore, the vulnerable have been protected.

In the budget announced last week the main social welfare rates for pensioners, jobseekers and carers were maintained and the social welfare ceiling was raised by €150 million over that which had been projected. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that there is much concern about the cut to the respite care grant which brings it back to 2007 levels. The fact is this payment is not made until June of any year and I ask the Minister to look at it again in the calm light of day, perhaps in the Finance Bill. With regard to carer's allowance in general, while I know the Minister is doing all she can, waiting times of up to eight to ten months are experienced on the ground. When applications for carer's allowance are made, we need to reduce waiting times by as much as possible.

Another change made in the budget which has a big impact in my constituency of County Mayo is to the farm assist criteria, whereby the income and child disregards will be abolished from next April. Again, as this change will not apply until next April, I hope it can be reconsidered in some way. There are 1,815 farmers on farm assist payments in County Mayo, the highest number by far of any county.

In recent days we have listened to Members on the opposite side of the House making a lot of noise about the cuts made. To return to my point about the protection of social welfare rates, carer's allowance was €220.50 in 2009, but this figure was reduced to €204 in the last two budgets of the previous Government, a cut of approximately €850 a year. Similarly, blind pension was reduced from €204 to €188, also a cut of approximately €850, and there were similar cuts to widow's pension and other payments. I had always assumed that these were vulnerable persons also. Let us not have lectures, therefore, from people who did not protect the main rates of social welfare.

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