Brendan Kenneally (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I welcome Deputy de Valera, Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, to the House. I am glad my good friend the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Coughlan, could be here earlier. I congratulate her on her appointment to the Cabinet. She is a good person, a popular choice by the Taoiseach and one of the better nominations he made.

I congratulate the Government on its achievements in recent years in the area of social welfare reform and I commend the previous Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, on what he achieved. As a Government Senator, it is easy for me to support the motion and to defend our record of recent years. We need only compare the Government's record to that of the rainbow Government. One example which jumps out immediately is old age pensions. In the five years of the previous Government, we increased old age pensions by 24% above inflation whereas the rainbow Government only succeeded in increasing it by 4% above inflation, so it is no wonder that when the general election was held, elderly people supported the Government parties. Indeed, they almost always have done because Fianna Fáil has always looked after the elderly throughout its history.

We made a commitment in 1997 – which some people thought was mad – to achieve a rate of payment of £100 on the old age pension. People said it could not be done but we did it comfortably and well ahead of time. We set a new target of €200 by 2007 and we will achieve that comfortably and ahead of time too.

Massive strides have also been made in child benefit. On a per child basis, there have been increases of €25, €30 and €35 and, this year, an increase of 25% alone on what was paid out last year. Prior to that there were increases of €5, €6 and €7. We diverted money towards an area of need. We all know that money, being given for various reasons to different families, was often not being spent properly. By and large, it is mothers who receive the child benefit payments and they are now getting a meaningful amount of money each month which is, in the main, being used properly. That was often not the case previously.