Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There was an earlier proposal to have a direct payment to people in receipt of the fuel allowance and the household benefits package. The Government decided that, because quite a few households would be excluded from that, every household which signed up to Irish Water and paid its water bills, as well as houses on group schemes or using private wells or septic tanks, would also receive it. That was a very positive announcement in the budget and has been very widely welcomed by people, because it reduces the water charge to €60 net for a single individual and to €160 net for a household of two or more adults. The fundamental changes in the water charging structure means they are now affordable. The purpose of the water conservation grant is to assist households with conservation measures.

The Department of Social Protection administers about 85 million payments a year. It has been my practice as Minister, since the Government came into office, to seek to find very significant savings and efficiencies in the Department through reform of the Department system. A critical part of that is constant engagement, advice and discussion between the Department of Social Protection and other relevant Departments. In this case, the two relevant Departments would be the Departments of the Environment, Community and Local Government and Public Expenditure and Reform. This system probably did not exist when Fianna Fáil was last in government.

We completely revamped the system of dealing with applications for domiciliary care allowance, something many Deputies in the House will remember. We revised the platforms and services, and the times in which services are delivered have significantly improved. In setting up the water conservation payment system, we did the logical thing of setting out a plan and discussing the need for any additional resources with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. That has been the model followed by the Department not just for this new initiative, but for all of the reforms the Department has introduced in regard to its IT platforms.

That is the proper way to do business. I would expect the Deputy to commend the civil servants in the Department on having management structures which operate in the same way as a private firm. In other words, we make plans when we have to introduce changes and provide the time and space to work out those plans. The Department of Social Protection, as the Deputy knows, makes more than 85 million payments a year to people like pensioners and other people who receive services and income from the Department. It works to ensure they receive them in the correct manner, on time and at the appropriate location. That is what we want to do with this payment. It is no different from our standard policy.

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