Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Let me take the Deputy through the changes I am happy to have been able to make in the budget. People quoted from the ESRI. The deliberate political choices the Government made to protect and maintain primary social welfare rates were not followed in other bail-out countries, some of which Deputies suggested Ireland should follow. The ESRI, among others, has acknowledged this and pointed out that, unlike in other countries, income inequality in Ireland has fallen in recent years, largely because of the overall maintenance of the social welfare system. These are not my findings, but those of the ESRI. There must be a little reflection on the true facts.

On the restoration of payments in the budget for 2015, I am very pleased to be in a position to recommence the partial payment of the Christmas bonus. This started last week, is ongoing this week and will continue next week. The Christmas bonus was abolished in 2009 by the previous Government and a bonus of 25% is being paid this week to all long-term social welfare recipients including pensioners, people with disabilities, carers, long-term jobseekers and lone parents. It will be paid to more than 1.2 million people. I am happy to be able to provide for it as a start. The reintroduction of the bonus, albeit on a partial basis, and the other welfare measures announced in the budget, are real indicators of a social dividend in respect of the economic recovery and the numbers of people back in work, which makes this possible. The intention of the Government, and me as leader of the Labour Party, is to ensure the recovery is felt by all, including the people in work who pay the taxes. I look after social welfare not just for those on social welfare but for those in work who pay a lot of tax in different ways.

Child benefit will increase by €5 from January and will benefit more than 611,000 households with children. It will help all families with children and will have an additional benefit for unemployed families in that it is work-neutral and is retained in full whether a family is in or out of work. I am happy that people who were formerly self-employed but whose businesses have died and crashed as a result of the great recession also benefit from it. The new back-to-work family dividend will commence next year and will be available to people returning to employment or self-employment for the transitional first two years. A person who has three children will retain €90 of his or her social welfare payment per week during the first year in which he or she returns to work and 50% of that in the second year. I want to send a clear message, particularly to unemployed construction workers, many of whom are self-employed due to the way the construction industry has been operating for the past decade, that they can avail of this, as well as family income supplement, FIS.

FIS is one of the areas for which I increased resourcing very significantly in the budget both for this year and next year. I will increase the amounts paid by very significant amounts and overhaul the ease with which people can apply for and get it and improve the IT platforms.

There will also be an increase in the living alone allowance of €1.30 per week, bringing the rate to €9 per week for people living on their own. As Deputies will know, that will mainly benefit pensioners and people on a disability payment living on their own.

The Independents in the House, a number of whom are present, put forward what I said was a very good motion last week on having a focus on budgetary impacts. I do not know if Deputy Boyd Barrett or Deputy Collins recalls that the first part of that motion praised the Department of Social Protection. I do not know if Deputy Shortall had an opportunity to read the motion, but I think she voted for it. It praised the Department of Social Protection for the amount of social impact analysis we do and suggested that other Departments should do the same level of social impact analysis. On behalf of the staff of the Department I was very happy to thank the Independents for that motion and for their recognition of the work the Department does with regard to social analysis.

Should the Deputy care to look at the Department's website, she will find our social impact analysis there in full. The Deputy seemed to doubt that detailed social impact studies had been done by the Department. They are done regularly by the Department and published in full. They cannot be published in full prior to the budget because the various budget rates, as the Deputy will know as a former member of the Government, are not confirmed until the day of the budget when the Minister for Finance stands up in the House. If the Deputy wishes I will send her copies of it.

The social inclusion division of my Department, which is recognised nationally and internationally for its analysis work, is the staff of the Combat Poverty Agency. When I became a Minister I was delighted to take these people, who have enormous experience and expertise with regard to poverty measurement, into the Department of Social Protection.

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