Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

Tá mé iontach buíoch deis a bheith agam labhairt ar an ábhar seo. When debating this Bill there are important figures we must keep in mind. Some 290,000 people are living in consistent poverty in this State, many of them children. Some 770,000 people are at risk of poverty, many of them also children. Two weeks ago the Government had the opportunity to make decisive progress towards meeting the national target of reducing consistent poverty to between 2% and 4% by 2012 and to eliminate it completely by 2016. However, it failed to take it.

In the lead-up to the budget and this Bill, Sinn Féin called for an overhaul of the social welfare system. We urged that the many anomalies that cause difficulties for people, which prevent them from returning to work from welfare and prevent them from even applying for welfare, would be addressed. We also called for new criteria for benchmarking of welfare rates so that they would reflect the current expense of living in this State. We sought a simplification of the application forms used for social welfare purposes. For example, the 12-page application form for family income supplement should be discontinued. We suggested that a flagging system should be put in place, perhaps through the taxation system, to advise persons of their welfare rights. We also sought the introduction of steps to ensure a smooth transition from welfare to work by, for example, not raising income thresholds for rent allowance supplement, which allows an individual to earn very little before they lose their ability to pay rent and potentially their home.

We called for an end to the qualified adult status as a method of payment, as it is both hugely underpaid and discriminatory. We also called for the system of activation to be overhauled. It does not make sense to pay a jobseeker a benefit that reflects nothing of what he or she earned before losing his or her job, then shunting him or her onto a FÁS course after three months. Although they were supported widely by anti-poverty and social groups, none of our proposals were accepted. Instead, we had the usual drip-drip of paltry increases for our most vulnerable in society, and in some cases, no increases at all.

While debating this Bill last week in the Dáil, my colleague, Deputy Morgan, became engaged in an argument with the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Cullen, about the state of the economy. Deputy Morgan indicated he was conscious of the slow-down in the economy and for that reason he believed the social welfare system should be overhauled to allow for effectiveness and value for money. The Minister attacked my colleague and replied the economy was as good as ever.

This is an example of the Government's hypocritical approach to Members of these Houses and the public. If the economy is doing so well, why are pensioners only getting €14 extra a week? One can also ask why we have not increased the fuel allowance and why does direct provision remain at €19.10 per week? Either the economy is in slowdown, in which case we should have used last week's budget allocation more effectively, or the economy is still thriving, in which case this should have been the year when we exceeded the back-dated system of benchmarking welfare payments and gave our dependent citizens something more substantial to live on.

At the same time as these low increases were made, we witnessed again the increase in stealth taxes; of which accident and emergency charges and hospital stay-over charges are just two examples. To these we can add the huge rate of VAT people are forced pay and the ability of local authorities to set rent and refuse charges at will. Any respite that should have been offered against these charges, in the form of this Social Welfare Bill, will mean nothing now.

The Bill fails to ease the burden on the working poor. Almost a third of all households at risk of poverty are headed by a person with a job. The minimum increase in the FIS income threshold is a prime example of how little concern the Government has for this group. These are the people we should be targeting for a medical card. Instead, there was no increase in the medical card threshold and the threshold remains lower than the smallest social welfare payment. This fails to improve the living standards of pensioners. The Government lauds itself on the fact that it is on-track to increase the pension to €300 by 2012. Given that the average industrial wage is currently between €570 and €670 a week, one can question the value of €300 in 2012. Pensions should have been increased by at least €20 this year.

The Bill does nothing for children. The early child care supplement does not solve the child care problem. The failure to increase maternity leave and to introduce paid paternity leave, shows how little the Government is committed to solving the child care problem. The back-to-school allowance does not reflect the true costs to families of sending their children into our not-so-free education system, where school books alone can cost anything up to €500.

The failure to increase the fuel allowance is a disgrace. Just this week the Institute of Public Health, IPH, said a fuel poverty strategy, similar to a model in the Six Counties, needs to be developed in the South. It revealed people in 227,000 properties, 18.4% of the total, were forced to live in cold, damp, and thermally inefficient houses. A total of 652 deaths was directly linked to poor housing standards. Fuel poverty predominantly affects elderly people and lone parents.

Sinn Féin submitted amendments to the Bill that called on the Minister to review a number of payments and the method by which they are paid. The Minister argued against them last week. We did not make amendments to the Bill for the sake of showing up the Government. We made them because we want adequate care to be given to our most vulnerable people. We support the Bill, purely on the basis that any increase in welfare has to be welcomed, but we do so with the proviso that we want the Minister to get on with the job he is paid handsomely to do, and make our social welfare system work.

The year 2010 is the European year for combating poverty. The Government must try to get the social welfare system in order by next year's budget if we are not to be ashamed in 2010 by the indecent levels of poverty in the State.