The Minister for Finance has indicated the economic and financial circumstances in which decisions on the Estimates were made. He has pointed out that the decisions made by Government in framing the 2004 Estimates are directed towards ensuring that we create the conditions necessary for our economy to be strongly positioned to benefit from the expected international upturn, to maintain and create employment and to increase the share of wealth in the country. Accordingly, the 2004 Estimates have been framed to stay within the overall spending guidelines agreed by the Government. This has had some impact on areas of social welfare spending where some spending pressures have arisen such as a substantial increase in claimants for child benefit payments, increased utility prices on the free schemes and an increase of almost 10% in the number of people claiming rent supplement payments. The number in receipt of rent supplement has increased to 60,000 people and the scheme now costs almost €330 million per year. It is important that we act now to ensure these pressures are addressed so as to ensure we can secure prosperity for all into the future.