Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 110: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her view on the recent statement by the Combat Poverty Agency that budget 2009 fails to protect the most vulnerable in society and will impact negatively on low-income households; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36038/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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In the recent budget, the Government had three main priorities, namely, to restore order and stability in the public finances, to increase productivity and competitiveness and to protect the most vulnerable in our country. Social welfare was prioritised in the budget. Next year, total funding for the Department of Social and Family Affairs will be €19.6 billion. This represents an increase of €2.6 billion or 15.5% on the Estimates allocation for 2008. More than 1.7 million people and their dependants will benefit from this expenditure, including 440,000 pensioners, 345,000 ill and disabled people, more than 80,000 carers, 30,000 low income working families availing of the family income supplement and more than 580,000 families in receipt of child benefit payments.

Provision has been made for €515 million worth of improvements in social welfare rates and qualifying conditions. These include €7 extra per week for State pensioners, an extra €2 per week in the fuel allowance, with payment also being made for an additional two weeks, €6.50 extra per week for welfare recipients of working age, such as those on job seekers and illness payments, and increases in the qualified adult allowance, which maintain the value of that payment as a proportion of the personal rate. The budget also provides for an increase of €2 per week, or 8.3%, in the qualified child increase, bringing it to €26 per child per week.

The qualifying threshold for the family income supplement, FIS, is also being increased by €10 per child to benefit low income working families with children. This change will result in an average increase of approximately €6 per child and will ensure that approximately 2,000 additional families will become eligible for the payment next year. Some 18,000 more families will benefit from the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance next year.

All weekly income maintenance payments increased by amounts varying from 3% to 3.8% in the budget, thereby fully protecting people from inflation, which is predicted to average 2.5% next year. The increases are also ahead of the projected growth in gross average industrial earnings next year and are in line with the wage increases agreed by the social partners in the second phase of the national pay agreement.

In its poverty impact assessment using the ESRI's SWITCH model, the Department established that the social welfare budget proposals would lead to a reduction in the risk of poverty. At a time when it is essential that public expenditure be strictly controlled in the national interest, this increased provision for social welfare is an unambiguous statement of the Government's intention to protect the vulnerable and less well-off in society.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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If anything ever showed the need for an independent agency, it is that answer. I will ask for the Minister's opinions. The Combat Poverty Agency is an advisory body that uses evidence-based proposals to combat poverty. Recently, the Minister stated that the agency was established when people needed to focus on combating poverty. Given this statement, does the Government believe that we no longer need to focus on poverty? It would be a natural conclusion to draw.

From a poverty perspective, what is the Minister's opinion on the introduction of the 1% levy? The issue is being revisited, but people on the minimum wage who earn anything else will fall under it. Is the Minister aware that, according to the Central Statistics Office, 10% of people living in consistent poverty are in employment? How will the budget's addition of a levy address this matter and help to take them out of consistent poverty?

Is the Minister aware that a low income household spends just under 50% of its total weekly income on food and fuel, which are staples? A family on an average income spends only20%. How can the Minister disagree with the conclusions drawn by the Combat Poverty Agency? As it is still a Government advisory agency, why is she not taking its views on the budget on board?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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All social welfare payments are exempt from the levy. The people to whom Deputy Enright referred, workers on low incomes, may qualify for FIS. Two measures are important. The first is the increase in the threshold by €10 per week to give a net gain——

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The Government gives it with one hand and takes it away with the other.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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——of €6, while the second is the extension of FIS to approximately 2,000 additional families. These measures should protect a number of people.

In terms of families and children and the pressures of returning to school, an additional 18,000 families will qualify for the relevant allowance. Other details of the levy will only be seen in the Finance Bill when it is finalised by the Minister. The Government remains committed to combating poverty and the specific targets we set will remain our aims until 2012 and 2016.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Does the Minister believe that the targets will be met in the agreed timeframes? In light of the budget, the Combat Poverty Agency believes it cannot be done. Will the Minister guarantee the agency's independence now that it will be subsumed into her Department? Will the new body, be it the "Office of Social Inclusion" or so on, be able to make statements on the next budget as the Combat Poverty Agency has done on this budget?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Targets were set during a time of plenty. While we do not have the same resources, it is still our aim——

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The poor are getting poorer.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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——to meet those targets, as shown in the outlined figures. A certain target was set for 2012 and another for 2016, both of which are a long way off. We are working towards the targets.

No matter my position, I have always valued independent advice and research and evidence-based data. It is important that this trend continues in my work.