Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I announced the discontinuation of a supplement within the SWA scheme which was specially designated as a crèche supplement. The reason for this is that, as a result of State expenditure on crèche care and the tripling of child benefit payments since 1997, the need for the crèche supplement has been considerably reduced. In any event, this supplement was not applied uniformly across the various health boards and, in some cases, was being paid on a basis not originally intended when it was established. Claimants who have short-term need for crèche care as a result of family or personal circumstances will be accommodated through SWA exceptional needs payments, thereby ensuring that the original purpose of the crèche supplement is protected within the SWA system.

I also announced a number of measures that are being taken which will remove anomalies or better target resources paid from the social insurance fund, particularly those affecting short-term benefits such as unemployment and disability benefits. Changes in items such as the number of contributions required for access to benefits and pensions are a normal feature of social insurance systems. It should be noted that the Social Welfare Act 1997, introduced by the then Minister, Proinsias De Rossa, made provision for increasing the number of paid contributions required in the years ahead for entitlement to old age and retirement pensions. In addition, it makes considerable sense to take action to change the conditions underlying some schemes so as to deal with any anomalies or inefficiencies at an early stage. Some of the measures which were identified in the original motion fall into this category and I will now outline them.

The social welfare system seeks to provide income support in circumstances where persons cannot secure an income because of various contingencies such as illness or disability. While the flat rate payment structure does not seek to replace all income lost, it does, in general, try to avoid a situation where the payment is higher than the income that it is supposed to replace. When part-time workers were brought into the social insurance system in the early 1990s, it was necessary to introduce a number of reduced or graduated payment rates which would more closely relate the amount paid with the earnings that were lost.

Over time, with the increase in the main payment rates, the amount paid in DB and UB are now considerably in excess of the earnings to which they relate. In effect, the current thresholds have not been updated since 1993 and, consequently, represent a serious disincentive to employment. This makes no sense and, as a result, the current weekly earnings threshold for the purposes of payment of reduced rates of DB and UB are being increased from €88.88 to €150.