Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I note this Bill is not going to the select committee. I do not know whose decision that was and I presume it was the Business Committee, but would we dream of doing that to the Finance Bill? Is it because one deals with the big people and the other with the small people? This is the Bill that every year deals with the small people on the ground, for better or worse. I will certainly be lobbying within my own party next year for the Social Welfare Bill to go to the select committee for detailed analysis. At a select committee, as with all committees, very little changes on the day but it can often lead to changes in the future.

Second, I note that the social welfare increases are below the rate of inflation, and there is no denying that. There are many one-off payments and I know why that is so. It is because there is a limit to the amount of money available and there is a consideration that some of the money that is coming into the Exchequer at the moment might be transient. On the other hand, we cannot have welfare recipients going backwards in real terms.

There are good things in this Bill. I particularly welcome the changes in the fuel allowance. As the Minister knows, the committee has been arguing for a long time on that issue. At the same time, we need structural changes in welfare. There was talk about bringing in a universal working age payment, rather than having all of these different payments. I do not know if that has been dropped. I often wonder why, if someone cannot work, to get effectively the same payment they have to go through all sorts of different hoops and onto different schemes. I would like to see us eventually looking seriously at the basic income. Individualisation is not going to go away. As family make-up becomes more complex, it is something that, sooner or later, we will have to look at. As the Minister knows, I have been arguing for a long time about changes to the means test, and I welcome the announcement the Minister made at the select committee this morning.

Of all of the one-off payments, one that I would like to keep as a one-off payment but paid every year is the double child benefit. I think it would be of great assistance to parents if that was paid in September or August every year because there are enormous costs on all families at back-to-school time in paying for clubs, music lessons and all of these costs up-front. That should be seriously considered by the Government. I will go into more detail on technical issues on another day.

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