Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister and support the amendment. I do not know any Minister for social welfare who has done as much work and spoken as much on pensions as Deputy Brennan. As the Minister has pointed out, we have a serious problem. Of the 2 million people in the workforce 900,000 have no private or work pension and a high proportion of those are women. I would like the Government to do more on the issue of pensioners' spouses. When one refers to the qualified adult portion of a pension it generally refers to situations where the payments are split among family members due to disharmony. Although the Department of Social and Family Affairs is good at doing that there should be an administrative and legal basis for the direct payment of those payments rather than the Department having to intervene.

Senator Cox proposed the amendment on the question of social inclusion and the social insurance system. I asked farmers in 1998 why they would not join that sort of scheme. There was strong resistance against it at the time, but people later regretted that they had not taken the opportunity. We have resolved that issue for self-employed people.

It may not be fair to blame the issue of local authority members on the Minister. I find it hard to understand. I was in a local authority for 17 years and received a gratuity, but I was also a Member of the Oireachtas. Councillors who have been with a local authority for 20 years wonder why they cannot get a social welfare payment — like local authority staff — when they leave or lose their council seats. The Seanad has been supportive of those councillors but the Dáil and the Ministers who have spoken on the matter have not. Whether it is the responsibility of the Minister for Social and Family Affairs or the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government we must address this issue. Whether one is a county councillor or a local authority staff member, one makes a contribution to the people and that should be recognised. I hope the Minister can examine this issue.

I welcome what has been said about child benefit, which has increased four-fold in the last ten years. I saw a debate on "Prime Time" last night about the child care package in the forthcoming budget. Expectations are high. I support what has been said on giving parents choice on child care and I reject any suggestion that there may be no increase in child benefit. Child benefit has done much good and while other ways may be examined it must be maintained.

Senator Norris pointed out that the Department sometimes gives support with one scheme and takes it away with another. I have spoken previously to the Minister on this. We have improved the farm assist to small farmers. This has not been referred to recently. I was glad to see the carers' allowance improved in the last budget but I have seen a farm assist recipient who applied for the carers' allowance losing out. Although the Department gives a person in this situation the better option, it is amazing to see it happening.

The issue of lone parents must be examined and I hope the Minister will do his best. When a recipient of the lone parents' payment enters part-time employment, it is ludicrous that he or she loses the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance, as happened in August and September this year. This should not happen. When the community employment scheme began approximately 15 years ago a person with a medical card who joined a FÁS scheme was allowed to keep his or her medical card. This must be addressed seriously.

Some of these many issues are not exactly the Minister's responsibility but they affect the elderly. We are going to talk about the elderly and qualified adult pensions. Other Senators spoke on the central repairs grants and housing repairs for the elderly. The Minister should look at this situation, or one Minister should examine all the schemes for the elderly. The funding must be provided for all those schemes. I hope the fuel allowance for the elderly will be increased in the budget as energy cost have increased. Many pensioners have mentioned that those living alone have increasing expenses and people on those pensions should be supported.

The respite grant is one of the best grants I have seen recently. It benefits 30,000 carers. Many people do not realise that it is paid irrespective of whether a person receives carer's allowance; that is unique. No other country has a system like it. I hope it will continue and the benefits will be increased. The Minister is committed to increasing the pension to €200 by 2007. The Minister is working towards that and hopefully the next budget will include another step.

Social welfare schemes should try to improve situations and not, as Senator Norris said, give with one hand and take with the other. It is not intentional but it happens and the means tests are the problem. Although the income disregard has been increased in every budget, I would like the means test to be abolished for some of those schemes, in particular the carers' allowance.