Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 and 5 together.

The Government has committed to making the needs of families, and achieving better outcomes for them, a priority, especially those under the aegis of our Department who are most at risk of poverty.

Over the past three budgets, the maximum rates of all weekly payments have increased by €15. Last year, I increased the payments to qualified children under 12 for the first time since 2010, thankfully, and increased payments for children aged 12 years and over to recognise that they cost more money. In addition, we restored the Christmas bonus to 100%, which was long overdue. This was paid to over 1.2 million long-term social welfare recipients in 2018 to assist them with the extra expenses incurred by all around Christmas.

Increasing the standard rates of payments is, however, only one approach the Government has taken to improve the living standards of social welfare recipients. We have also introduced measures that target those most at risk of poverty, such as increasing significantly the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance last year. We extended the fuel allowance season and increased funding for school meals. The latter is coming into its own. We increased income disregards for lone parents and low-income families while strengthening consistently the provision for employment services.

As part of preparations for budget 2020, I hosted my Department's annual pre-budget forum in July. Representatives from some 50 community, voluntary, trade union and business groups had an opportunity to present their budget priorities directly to me and my officials. In addition, my officials and I regularly engage with a wide range of stakeholders both bilaterally and through regular meetings, including with the community and voluntary pillar and the social inclusion forum, at which poverty research and other issues are discussed. I had four meetings on Monday of this week.

In addition, the Department's social inclusion division examines the impact of potential budget measures on poverty rates and a social impact assessment is carried out. This is an evidence-based methodology that estimates the likely distributive effects of changes on household income using the ESRI's SWITCH model.

Regarding Brexit, the convention on social security was signed on 1 February 2019 and the parliamentary ratification processes in Ireland and in the UK, where it took a little longer, were completed by March of this year. This means that, no matter what happens when the UK leaves the EU, recipients will experience no change to the reciprocal social welfare arrangements that have existed for a long time between Ireland and the UK. The rights and entitlements of both EU and British citizens to social welfare payments will remain as they were before Brexit, irrespective of what kind of Brexit materialises.

Discussions are ongoing on this year's budget. The current context will push us in a direction in which will be having a slightly different and more focused budget than we would have had heretofore. As is the norm in my Department, I expect the discussions to be ongoing right up to the day before the final budget is decided upon.

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