Diarmuid Wilson (Fianna Fail)

I was delighted to see the Minister for Social and Family Affairs here this evening. As a fellow Ulster person I am delighted to see her being made responsible for such a major Department. I also welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern. If I had not been here to witness it myself, I would not have believed that a Labour Party Senator could have said he looks forward to the unemployment rates going up again.

The Minister, Deputy Mary Coughlan, is responsible for the family as well as social affairs, and it is with the family that I would like to begin. This Government is committed to adopting a "families first" approach by putting the family at the centre of all our policies. As a republican party, a party which seeks to develop an egalitarian society, Fianna Fáil has always believed that we must put families first. Our approach recognises the dynamism and diversity of family life today. It also places a very strong emphasis on protecting the interests of children.

We have a very clear vision of the type of family we want to build in today's Ireland. We cannot, and should not, go back to the old style authoritarian family where children know their place. However, we certainly do not want to see the excessive individualism that can be seen in some countries, where it is all "me, me, me" and where family life does not get a look in. Our challenge is to blend the love and support which existed in traditional families with the recognition that all family members – men, women and children – have rights.

In relation to family-friendly policies, we are committed as a Government to supporting parents in taking up work where they want to do so, but we are also committed to supporting parents who choose to care in the home. That is why, in recent budgets, we decided to invest massively in child benefit. The Government is supporting the choices parents themselves are making in caring for their children. That is why we increased the pension payable to women in the home to the full old age non-contributory pension rate.

The latest child benefit increases form part of the largest ever series of increases in child benefit in the history of the State. After only five years, the basic rate has been trebled and a family with three children will receive €257 more per month than in 1997. In 1997 – and I know Senator McHugh will be interested in this – Deputies Michael Noonan and Ruairi Quinn gave a family with three children a monthly increase of a paltry £7 per month. Fianna Fáil in Government, with our partners the Progressive Democrats, has given that same family €101.60 extra per month in each of the last two years. To combat child poverty, we have made the largest increases in child benefit in the history of the State.