Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I support Senator McCarthy's amendments. I said in the House last night that there was cross-party support for the revised national anti-poverty strategy when it was published just before the last general election. The targets for 2007 are about right, and I encourage all concerned to meet them. We are in the first year of trying to attain those 2007 targets, which, it states in the agreement, must be achieved earlier should financial circumstances permit.

The problem is that the social welfare increases that the Government announced in the budget mean it will not even come close to realising the targets by 2007. That sends out a very negative signal to those on extremely poor incomes. In the Minister's first year trying to attain that target we have seen a failure in her Department. If the national anti-poverty strategy is to be taken as a real Government commitment, we will have to do much better next year in ratcheting up the basic increases given to people who have to live, as the Minister well knows, on extremely small incomes.