Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

There is no guarantee because these are private pension schemes. I know of no party that has recommended nationalising these schemes. We have a choice to make. Should we press the company so hard that it says, "To Hell with this, we are out of here", or should we take companies under the wing of the Pensions Board and, over a longer period, nurse them to a situation where they can get their pension funds up to the required standard and thereby have a better chance of protecting the pension funds of the individuals involved?

We could spend the whole day debating this issue. I want to convince the Senator that I took these two decisions in order to protect pension funds, not to give into some bunch from the pensions industry. That is not my brief. My brief is to protect pensioners and ensure more people take out pensions. This is where I am coming from in this debate. I know the Senator is taking a special interest in this matter and I listened carefully to what she said. However, I have given my response to the issue.

Senator Cox has been consistent for many years on the issue of child care. It requires a joined-up Government approach. It is becoming a major issue. Anyone campaigning in the by-election will know that commuting to and from Dublin and the requirement for young families to have child care is being brought up on every doorstep. It is a major issue which will require a combination of a number of Departments to pull it together. The Departments of Health and Children, Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Social and Family Affairs and Finance have a big role to play in this regard. While there are taxation and safety implications involved, there is a need to develop a strong child care policy. I note the example of France, which I will take on board.

The Senator also raised the issue of carer's allowances and widows. The Oireachtas committee recommended that we should pay half rate to widows who go into caring. We could not do that this year, but provided the €1,000 respite grant instead. My Department will continue to examine whether it is possible to include widows in the carer's allowance in the future. I note the Senator's points on parental leave benefit which is also a major issue.

Senator Wilson paid tribute to the money advice and budgeting service and I wish to join the Senator in praising the agency which helps people out of debt and to manage money. While there is much talk about social inclusion, MABS is concerned with financial inclusion, a very important step on the road to full social inclusion. If one can teach people to use bank accounts, pay their bills and manage their money, they are much more likely to be socially included.

Senator Mansergh raised the issue of individualisation. I think there is scope to do more in this area. The rather Dickensian concept of a dependant, particularly one who is a fine healthy adult, does not have much place in a 21st century social security code. While that is easy to say, moving from the present state to our desired destination will be another day's work. I am taken with the argument that the concept of dependancy is one that should not be in our system, unless a genuine dependancy exists. It makes more sense to deal with people as individuals, and we will examine what is possible in this area.

Senator Mansergh also suggested a basic review of whether child benefit is reaching its targets. A number of Senators discussed child poverty. The National Economic and Social Council is examining a possible amalgamation of the family income supplement and the child dependant allowance into a new, second-tier children's allowance, to be aimed at low-income families. The NESC has almost completed its work and as soon as it is available, we will take some decisions.

I accept the argument that the universal nature of child benefit is important in getting funds to families on behalf of children. We need to examine a more focused approach to child poverty. One way to do so is through the introduction of a special type of child benefit which would be like FIS and child dependant allowance. I hope we can make some rapid progress on that issue. While it is important to cherish all of the children of the nation equally, it is more important to cherish the targeted few that are on the poverty line. I do not think that takes from the constitutional principle.

I thank Senator Henry for her comments. In particular, she spoke about the back to education allowance. Originally, the limit was six months but my predecessor raised it to 15 months. I brought it back to 12 months and I told the Dáil that between now and September, I will review the position to see if it is possible to bring it back to nine months. September is an appropriate time, as it is when most people return to the education system and sign on. We have eased the restriction, but have not yet gone further than that.

Senator Ulick Burke complimented the staff of my Department, with which I agree. They are a fine body of professional people. He also spoke about the importance of confidentiality in appeals. We can track the specific case he raised to ensure that if it occurred in the manner described, it will not recur.

He also mentioned waiver charges, as did a number of other Senators. In the main, the issue arises from the privatisation of the refuse collection system and the non-requirement of the private sector to introduce waivers. Successive Governments have taken the view that is a local issue concerning local authorities, which should be the bodies to organise waivers, even with the private sector. However, a pensioner who did not have a bill for €300 last year but now suddenly does, will not care which local authority he or she lives in. The bill must be paid, which may be a problem. This means that my Department and I must give the issue some consideration. The Combat Poverty Agency recommended that it be done with a locally-operated waiver system. From the Government's perspective, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and myself continue our discussions as to how we can help with some kind of waiver regime that might be targeted. It would have to operate through the local authorities. In the short term, there is no scope for a major national scheme along the lines suggested by the Opposition Members. I thank Senator Ulick Burke for raising the issue.

Senator Ryan spoke about habitual residence. He mentioned a requirement of three years, whereas it is actually two years. I see the Senator is not with us. I do not wish to dwell on this in detail except to state that there is no discrimination in the social welfare system against those from the accession states. There are five tests which they must meet as must everyone in Ireland. One of the tests is a two-year residency requirement. The habitual residence issue is under review and we are examining all the requirements to ensure fairness for people from the accession states in the future.

Senator Finucane raised the issue of a helpline and the waiting period. I will pass that to my colleague the Minister for Health and Children. He also raised the issue of waivers. Senator Brian Hayes raised the issue of lone parents, particularly the maintenance scheme issue. The Senator has a case, which I will examine.

I wish to make some points about lone parents. There are some myths extant about lone parents, essentially pub talk, and we should put some facts on the record. In reality, less than 3%, 2.8% to be exact, of lone parents are teenagers. The notion that there is an army of teenagers is not accurate. In fact, 75% of all lone parents are over 25 and the average age is approximately 27 or 28. One third of lone parents are in their 30s. People have a false impression that one is dealing with a mass of teenagers. The other myth is that lone parents have a multiplicity of children because there is great money to be had from the system. This is also inaccurate as 60% have one child and 25% have two. In other words, 85% of lone parents have two children or fewer. Lone parents tend to be older than pub talk suggests and tend to have one child. This gives the lie to the myth that somehow there is a racket going on as the figures show clearly this is not the case.

Lone parents have genuine pressures and our job is to meet those pressures. The best way to do so and I note what has been said about the back to education allowance, is to encourage people back into education and back to work. Joined-up Government is required in this area as it affects a range of Departments, and an interdepartmental group is examining how the system can be changed to encourage lone parents back into education and work.

I am interested in revisiting the issue of the cohabitation rule. We are working on it but do not have an easy answer. I do not like a social policy where in the 21st century, the Republic sends inspectors to the homes of 50,000 to 60,000 lone parents to ensure that the child's father is not in the house. This cannot be good social policy. Joint parenting is clearly better and if the parties involved agree, cohabitation is also probably better for the child. A State system that polices lone parents to ensure that does not happen cannot be right. However, as I noted in the Dáil yesterday, the situation is similar to the leaving certificate points system. It is not perfect, but until a better method is found, one should not mess with it. I must confer with my officials and garner advice from wherever we find it, as to how we can improve social policy in that area.

I am convinced that funding and income support are the main responsibilities of my Department. We also have a responsibility to use that income support to help solve the social problems behind the payments being made. It is not sufficient to salve our collective conscience by having schemes for such things as child poverty, lone parents or pensions on the basis that if we pay the bill and sign the cheque, the problem will go away. If the problem does not go away, we must deal with the social issue behind the payment. All of us have this responsibility.

Perhaps sometime in the future, we might find out that there is no longer a need for a particular payment because the social problem behind it has been solved. It is not sufficient to institutionalise the problem, lock people into poverty traps, pay the bill, brag about the amount of money provided as part of social welfare and then assume that it constitutes social policy. Social policy goes much deeper than that and we have a responsibility to go much deeper into many of these issues. I have only skimmed the surface of this and I look forward to many more debates with Senators on the detail of all these issues in the future.