Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

When the Department initiated additional inquiries regarding the diet supplement, it commissioned the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute to examine several factors, including the average cost of a proper, nutritionally balanced, healthy diet and how it corresponded to the current measure of cost relating to social welfare.

Diet supplements are paid to 12,700 people. It is worth reminding ourselves of what they are. They are paid to people who have been prescribed a specific diet and cannot afford the additional associated costs. That targeted supplement can be up to approximately €18 a week, depending on the person's income and the type of diet he or she has been prescribed. The formula dates back to 1996, from which time the basis for calculating the rate of the diet supplement has remained unchanged.

In commissioning the report, the Department wished to put in place a fresh formula that would take account of what a modern diet might be. Diets have changed considerably, even since 1996, and the range and requirements of specific diets have also changed in that time. It is therefore wise to use a professional institute to seek to recast that formula to see what now constitutes a modern diet in prescribed cases and link that with the affordability of the social welfare system.

I accept the Senator's point. Although, as I said, I keep an open mind on such matters, my current thinking is to continue to build a really good scheme for those with specific dietary needs under a modern formula. That is legitimate. The time may come when we get our basic rates to such an attractive level that we will not need to continue many of these schemes. That is the subject of a broader debate in which I will be happy to engage as time goes on.