Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 92: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will provide details of the increased controls designed to achieve savings which were initially intended to be realised by stopping the payment of the disability allowance to disabled teenagers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40022/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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In the social welfare budget, I announced that the age of eligibility for entitlement to disability allowance would be increased from 16 to 18 years for new claimants with effect from 1 January 2009. As an alleviating measure, the age for entitlement to the domiciliary care allowance would be increased from 16 to 18 years from the same date. These measures were estimated to save €5.6 million on my Department's Vote while giving rise to a cost of €1.4 million on the HSE Vote. Accordingly, the net saving to the Exchequer in 2009 was expected to be of the order of €4.2 million.

The changes announced in the budget were designed to address concerns raised about the appropriateness of paying young people a social welfare payment in their own right at the age of 16. It was feared that receiving the payment at an early age could undermine the incentive to pursue work, training or education options and cause them to become welfare dependent too early.

Following the budget I met six different groups representing people with disabilities and disability service providers. At these meetings, the underlying principle of the budget measure, namely, that it is inappropriate to pay a social welfare payment to a 16 year old in his or her own right, was not seriously contested. The key concern expressed by the groups related to the loss of expected income at short notice to families of young people with disabilities.

Following these meetings, I recommended to the Government that the disability allowance continue to be paid to 16 and 17 year olds pending a full review of the scheme. The review is considering a wide range of issues as identified by groups representing people with disabilities, their families and service providers, and will take account of a forthcoming report on disability and illness benefits by the OECD. It will also draw on new data published by the Central Statistics Office last week from the national disability survey 2006.

An amount of €1.4 million which will not now be required for the domiciliary care allowance measure will be transferred from the HSE Vote to my Department. Accordingly, the net impact on social welfare expenditure of not proceeding with the budget proposal is €4.2 million. This represents just 0.02% of projected overall social welfare expenditure in 2009 and will be accommodated by ongoing efficiencies across the whole range of the Department's activities next year. It will not be necessary to introduce further measures affecting entitlements or payments.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Given the Minister's answer, she clearly did not learn anything from the announcement made in the budget. She is still trying to claim that the families were looking for this measure when she refers to the six different voluntary bodies which did not seriously contest what she did. The families involved seriously contested the decision the Minister made. The decision was wrong and the fact the Minister still seems to be considering it in a different context is wrong.

In any case, that was not the question I asked. If the Minister reads the question, she will see the last line of her answer is all that refers to the question asked. I asked the Minister from where in her budget she will save the €4.2 million that was ring-fenced when she was going to make this change. Both the Minister and the Taoiseach said in the media that she was going to find these savings elsewhere in her Department. The specific question I asked was from where those savings will come. The Minister was able to say she would get them so she should account for them to the House.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I met the six groups to which the Deputy referred and, as I noted in my reply, those whom I met have not contested the principle of this, either then or subsequently. If anybody in the House would look at this, they would realise it is a valid principle not to make a social welfare payment to a person at 16 years of age.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The Minister should deal with the question. She has a requirement to do so.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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That issue is not contested.

Noel O'Flynn (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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It is not Deputy Enright's job to intervene. Her job is to hear the answer.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The Minister is not giving the answer to the question asked.

Noel O'Flynn (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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Let the Minister speak. Let me do the job I am put here to do and let the Deputy do the job she is supposed to do, if she does not mind.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Do it, please.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The overall budget is €19.6 billion. We believe that with increased control savings, some of which I referred to in the first answer, we will be able to save another €4.2 million. A figure of €19.6 million is an enormous sum in this context. Judging by the success of some of the activities we have undertaken this year in our controls, particularly in regard to the jobseeker's and child benefit, as well as other initiatives we hope to take in this regard, I envisage there should be no difficulty in saving €4 million next year.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Every time there is a problem, the Minister tells us she will make increased savings. She told us in July or August she would get €25 million in savings, which was the subject matter of the first question. However, she was unable to explain how that €25 million has been obtained. Now, she is telling us she will save another €4.2 million in respect of this through increased savings. From where is that €4.2 million to come? If it is so easy to make savings by increased controls, as she seems to think, why has the Department, the Minister and her predecessors not been doing this every year for the past number of years? I again ask the Minister to outline how exactly the saving of €4.2 million will be accounted for in the Department's budget.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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This is only early November, which is why we have not yet reached the target of €25 million, but we would envisage doing so by the end of December.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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It does not look like it.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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To the end of September, total savings of €331 million were made by the Department in all kinds of savings and control.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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They were already budgeted for.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I will be reviewing those that have been the most successful, and I have already highlighted some. Out of a budget of €19.6 billion, it is my intention to save the further €4 million that would have been required under this disability allowance initiative.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The Minister cannot answer the question.