Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Obviously, this will be the last Social Welfare Bill before the general election and consequently, it is appropriate that Members view this Bill as part of a package and consider the legacy of how social welfare has been changed. There has been much spin about what has not been done in social welfare in that one has been told that core rates of social welfare were not cut in the context of some things that happened, particularly at the early stages of this Government. This, of course, is not true and the previous speaker has made this point. There was a cut in respect of those under the age of 25 and similarly, the duration of jobseeker's benefit has been cut to nine months. Moreover, child benefit, which is a pretty basic social welfare payment, has been cut despite the Tesco advertisement and the assurances that it would not be. While there has been a modest restoration of that benefit, which is welcome, it does not restore it to its previous levels. One should call this out for what it is in respect of the spin that was presented.

Some of the other items are not so easy to describe, such as the ongoing reviews, which I understand the Department is obliged to carry out. However, I refer to the number of reviews of people in receipt of invalidity pensions who had thought there was a degree of certainty about their payments. I cannot count the number of such reviews I have encountered in which people were told they were fit for work as they could answer a telephone. Some people could barely walk and one man I met could barely talk due to respiratory failure but he was told he could answer a telephone. These were the kind of cases that were represented as people claiming benefits for which they may not have been entitled.

However, when one examines matters structurally, lone parents have been singularly selected. While it is welcome that people return to work, the nonsense that was spun about the Scandinavian model of child care prior to the insistence on that scheme being introduced really caused a great deal of understandable upset. Similarly, in respect of pensions, people now are beginning to receive reduced pensions where there was no expectation that this would be the case. It is because of the manner in which pensions are calculated on the basis of the very first time somebody worked, perhaps as a teenager with a part-time job, and this is calculated over a person's lifetime. I have seen these cases so the Minister of State should not tell me this is not happening because I know it is.

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