Brendan Kenneally (Fianna Fail)

The Senator spoke about unemployment in general. The figures released earlier this month show unemployment fell in October. The current unemployment rate is around 162,000. Of that, approximately half are long-term unemployed and includes people who were on short-term contracts and other categories. It should be remembered that not too long ago 300,000 people were unemployed. We are going through a trough, but at least when we come out of it, we will be in a position to grow the economy again. We were not in a position to ride out the storm in the past, but because the economy has been so sound, we will be able to do so in the future. I do not envisage expending huge sums of money on unemployment benefit which can be used in other social welfare areas.

An area in which I would like to see more money being spent is the carer's allowance. I listened on the monitor in my office to some of the contributions of Fine Gael speakers and agreed with a number of the points they made about this area. The Minister's contribution was so similar to my own notes on the subject they could have been written by her. We have made great strides in this area. I was a Member of the other House when carer's allowance was first introduced by the then Minister for Social Welfare, Deputy Michael Woods. There had not been any calls for the introduction of such a payment, but we went ahead and introduced it. It was seen as a very innovative measure.

If memory serves me correctly, the budget for carer's allowance in the first year was £8 million. Everybody said it was a marvellous scheme, but within months, the very people who had not called for its introduction were attacking it and saying it did not go far enough and not enough money was being made available. Huge strides have been made since. I do not know what the current budget is, but it will have increased close to hundredfold since, particularly in recent years. The means test has been changed considerably and the impact on people lessened. More people now qualify for carer's allowance than in the past.