John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. What the Government presented in the budget, and which will now be brought about in this Social Welfare Bill, is certainly tokenistic. The Bill underscores the Government's lack of commitment to the less well-off in society and its pursuit of an agenda that punishes the less well-off and the vulnerable while it looks after the wealthy.

Very little thought or vision has gone into the Bill. During my time in the House, we have had many new ideas from different governments. We had the introduction of free fuel, the respite care grant, the carer's allowance and other initiatives that were brought forward by different Ministers through the years. However, nothing new has come from this Minister during her time in the Department of Social Protection other than reductions and cuts for people who cannot afford to carry them.

I would like to suggest to the Minister a few ideas and thoughts that she might consider before the Bill is passed. One of these areas, following on from Deputy Keaveney's point on disability, is that there would be a special rent allowance for people with disabilities to enable them to live independently. I find that people with disabilities who want to acquire a rented property find it very difficult to do so under the present rental regime. This is because most landlords who have to make a property wheelchair-friendly or suitable for people with disabilities would have to spend a lot of money and, as a result, they look for increased rent. I would ask the Minister to include some measure in the Bill that would allow an increase in rent subsidy. The current operation of rent allowance throughout the country means people with disabilities must remain in institutions whereas if they received a substantial rent subsidy they would be able to leave the institution and have a certain amount of independent living.

I recently visited the community workshops in Enniscorthy with the Minister of State, Deputy Paul Kehoe. One of the strong points that was made to us on that occasion, which was attended by some 300 people with various disabilities, was that they would like to leave the institutions and live a normal life in an independent manner. However, because of the exorbitant rents they are not able to do so.

The €3 increase for old age pensioners is certainly a start, although it is not a huge amount. From meeting people throughout my county, I find they are disillusioned with the €3 increase because there has been a reduction in the fuel allowance and the telephone allowance, as well as the abolition of the bereavement grant. When the property tax and the water charges are added to that, it certainly takes away from the weekly pension people receive. The Government makes great play of the fact it did not touch the amount of money old age pensioners have received weekly over the past four years but if we take all the other reductions into account, the overall reduction is substantial and the €3 will go nowhere near meeting that. I believe the Minister should seriously consider increasing the old age pension by more than €3.

In particular, the increase should have been extended for those on invalidity pension or disability allowance. These people have a very small weekly income and could do with an increase. It is mean-spirited of the Minister not to increase those two payments along with the old age pension. However, as I said, the €3 increase is a start, if a paltry one, and I hope it will be substantially increased in the future.

To return to the issue of rent subsidy, there seems to be logjam within the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Finance and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in regard to how they deal with the rental issue. As we know, there have been huge rent increases in the past year to 18 months for one simple reason - the scarcity of property. Not only in Dublin but in my own constituency of Wexford, rents have shot up by 25% and 30% in some cases, particularly in the north Wexford area around Gorey, which is adjacent to Dublin. We now have a situation where people who had houses rented to councils under the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, are taking them back because they can get €200 or €250 a month more by renting them in the private sector.

There is a need to re-examine the amount of money allocated for the rent subsidy scheme. As I said, there is a huge scarcity of property and I do not know how this is going to be dealt with because no matter what building programme the Government introduces in the next few months, the houses will not come on stream for the next 12 to 18 months.

We need a mix of private, social and local authority housing to deal with the problem. In the meantime, it is urgent that the rental subsidy is increased so as to enable people meet the demands of property prices.

In regard to the living alone allowance, single people living alone are finding it very difficult to survive. This is an area the Minister must revisit. There is an issue in regard to lone parents and these people come in droves to my constituency office and clinics to complain about the changes the Minister introduced in last year's budget. These changes are causing increasing poverty for lone parents. I do not know whether the Minister intends to revisit the issue and make changes, but she still has an opportunity to do that through the Social Welfare Bill. It is not just my view but that of all of the agencies that deal with the issue of poverty that lone parents are being driven below the poverty line by the changes made by the Minister in last year's budget. This year's budget does not promise much change, but the Minister has an opportunity to revisit this issue in the Social Welfare Bill. She should take another look at the issue and increase the threshold from seven years of age. We suggested a cut-off at 14 years, but the Minister does not have to go along with that. The seven years of age cut-off is far too low and causes hardship and poverty.

The FIS scheme was an enlightened initiative by a previous Minister and it works reasonably well. However, some increase or change in regard to the first and second child should be considered. The payment is beneficial to families on a low income. I have always and will continue to support the FIS scheme, but perhaps some changes could be made to provide an increase in the amounts allowed per child. The scheme should continue.

We all make our views known in this House on the direction that should be taken in regard to social welfare overall. However, the main purpose of social welfare is to support less well off people. These people and families are surviving on the minimum income and cannot afford reductions in their social welfare payments. While the Minister allocated an increase of €3 for old age pensioners, she should take into account the gain of from €20 to €25 per week if we add up the reductions in the water charges and property tax.

I know the property tax is a contentious issue, but there is something seriously wrong with how it operates. An old age pensioner lives next door to me and she pays the same property tax and water charges as I do, although she is on a pension of €230 per week while I am a well paid Deputy. Whatever Government we have after the next general election, the water charge should be given serious consideration. We should not have a one size fits all water charge or property tax. If these taxes are to be kept in the future, income thresholds and social welfare payments should be taken into account. It is unfair that millionaires and people on high incomes only pay the same charges as people on disability, invalidity or old age pensions. The Minister of State here, Deputy Ring, is a compassionate man and I am sure that if he sits at Cabinet in the future he will look seriously at changes that need to be made in this area to see an element of fairness is introduced.

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